Microsoft Piracy Shield Breached
Microsoft Corp. said Monday it was looking into its legal options regarding an unidentified hacker who breached its anti-piracy technology last week, enabling users to distribute songs without restrictions.
The damage to Microsoft’s overall digital rights management software was slight, although some music on the market had lost its protection, said Jonathan Usher, a Microsoft group product manager.
“We learned about the hack Friday and were on the phone with our content partners right away,” he said. “We have built in a means to update the protections for cases such as this, and we’re still implementing that renewability.”
The breach by the anonymous hacker named “Beale Screamer” stripped the software of features used by many content providers to protect music and video online.
The identity of the hacker who was distributing the software is under investigation.
The Redmond, Wash., software giant has said its Windows Media has the broadest reach of any Digital Rights Management technology. More than 275 companies have licensed Windows Media DRM to create secure distribution systems for audio and video content.
DRM has become increasingly important to Microsoft as it moves ahead in the battle over the market for streaming media.
Last week’s hack compromised Windows Media audio version 7, which was released about 18 months ago, Usher said.
Usher said Microsoft’s content partners have been very understanding.
“We have been forthright that no technology and no DRM is 100% secure,” he said, adding that Microsoft has anticipated hacks such as this.
Users must first purchase a digital music file in order to exploit the hacker’s software, he said. If they have access to the Screamer software, they could then strip off the locks on the purchased file and distribute the songs without restrictions.
This is the second time that Microsoft’s DRM technology has been compromised. Programmers in 1999 breached security features used in Windows Media audio version 4 the day after it was released, but the company quickly fixed the problem, it said.
