Thank you all.

I am not nearly so ignorant concerning DRM as I was 2 days ago. I had a good idea that I could find some help here on this forum and I am delighted that I was able to do that.

I have read over the years a little bit about DRM. As far as I know the only time that I have encountered it is on the 2 DVD movies that I have. And, as I said in my original post, the Daniusoft program did not recognize any of the files on the 2 DVDs. Since I was not able to visualize files on the DVDs I incorrectly assumed that "protected files have a different appearance from unprotected files". Finding out that I was wrong was my 1st step in learning about DRM's.

I will follow each of the links that you have provided to round out my education on DRM. So many times information that I have seen information on the Web (regardless the subject) the information is given with the author making the assumption that everyone reading his post knows what it is talking about. When it comes to reading about the entertainment industry I start well below the level of beginner.

Bigun

What is DRM?

Two good articles (and a Microsoft FAQ) that explain DRM to a point. Of course the Microsoft one is fairly pro-DRM as it is from their viewpoint (or that of a developer) and not necessarily the viewpoint of a user. The Microsoft FAQ is fairly detailed but it gives a good idea of the theory behind one type of DRM - Windows Media 10.

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/drm.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/drm/faq.aspx
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,929861,00.asp

The Dariusoft program says they can remove DRM but of course you have to be able to play the protected media on the PC. The software through whatever means (different programs use different techniques) essentially "re-records" the song while it is being played in an unprotected format (minus the DRM).

Bigun, Let me tell you my experiences with DRM songs and Daniusoft Media Converter. I purchase songs from the net that I want to download to my daughter's mp3 player. (She tells me which ones she wants). However, most of them to date, (although I see that nearly half of the 21 songs I just downloaded for her weren't,) are DRM protected. (If you use Windows Media Player and right click on a song in your library you can find out if a song is protected or not.)

Now that I have got the songs downloaded, all I can do with them is play them on the laptop they were downloaded onto. I can't burn them to a cd and I can't sync them onto Kel's mp3 player. This is where Daniusoft comes in, I run them all through Daniusoft, then add the results into Windows Media Player, right click on them and hey presto, the DRM protection has gone. Then, I sync them onto Kel's mp3 player and back them up to a cd so that I can remove them from my cd. Not many of her songs are ones that I like, no point in keeping them on my laptop.

To me, Daniusoft is a wonderful program, to do something that shouldn't be necessary in the first place. I'm talking about DRM protection, and I feel that anything I can do to get past that is fine with me. After all, you can copy songs on cds onto an mp3 player!

Anyway, I purchased their Daniusoft Media Converter Pro program while it was on offer for $9 because apparently it will do the same thing for dvds, but I haven't tried that yet. It is not so important to me, I only want to back up some music videos that we constantly watch so that the original stays in good condition.

So to answer your first thread above, you would have to buy a song through the net to 'process' this program. I hope this helps you. I'm very happy with Daniusoft, and I expect to use it a lot as I have both a son and a daughter that I download songs for, one to listen to on cds, the other, the MP3 player. And, I too, have MP3 players that I buy songs for. The audio on my laptop is pathetic.

hotdoge3

Thank you. My understanding of your reply is that a protected file can only be identified by

1. The context where you find the file. There will be some reference stating that the file requires a license or the file will be accompanied by a price you have to pay to get a license to play it.

Does this mean that you can download a protected file but something prevents (blocks) you from being able to play the file?

or

Does it mean you can't download a protected file before you pay a license fee?

If you can download a protected file but not play it until the protection (Digital Rights Management) is removed, I can see a use for programs like "Daniusoft Media Converter".

If you can't download a file with DRM protection until you pay for it, then I don't see how the program would be of any help with files coming from the Web.

I am almost 100% sure that you can play a file that is on a CD but not copy it without a program like The Daniusoft Media Converter.

I am only about 25% sure on this one - so I still need help. I know that on a new computer (or maybe it is a new installation of a operating system) you have to select a region (location of the computer)to play a CD and that CD has to be approved for the region you have selected.

If this is true, will the Daniusoft program allow you to play a CD from outside of your region?

At the moment I have one last question on protected files. Are files that are downloaded from the Web restricted to a certain region?

With an answer to my last question I can better determine the usefulness of the Daniusoft program for this case.

Thank you for taking my original question on file protection seriously. As you can see - there is a lot I don't know about protected files. My guess is that a number of other people don't have all of the answers to file protection in all of these cases either.

Bigun

You can not tell by looking but if you see file say licenses it DRM,All so if you Pick in wmp Acquice licenses for protectes content,& you need to go to new no good as you get not this P C.
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=9766 [ Compare Windows Media Audia to other ] Formats

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/9series/privacy.aspx#licrestore

Microsoft Digital Rights Management

I suppose that I am way behind on music and video programs. I have no idea what copy protection looks like and my ignorance led me to wanting to try out Daniusoft Media Converter (today's GOTD). I have a CD movie and thought I would give it a try. Nothing, I failed the program's first step. I saw empty "video" and "audio" directories so there was nothing to open

The only media that I have heard of being copy protected are CDs and the only CD that I have is a movie. Nada - not one thing more.

I have to assume that there is some places where I can go and find a file that this program will process. I can see what the suffix is for the finished product (after conversion) but I don't know what the suffix is for a protected file. The Daniusoft product write-up says that the program will work with both protected and unprotected files. This should mean that any file will go through the program so I will not know if the program processed is a protected file or the program just played an unprotected one.

My questions is what does a protected file look like? Does it have any visual characteristic that distinguishes it from a file without protection or do the two files look the same and you have to know that a protected file is protected because it comes from a protected CD?

Yea, I know that I am naive on this but I will bet there are some audio formats that I know about that the rest of you don't. How about amateur radio and slow scan TV?