According to a story on DailyTech, it seems Microsoft Window's DRM, known as WM-DRM, has been cracked yet again. Funny how it only took a matter of days since Microsoft thought they had fixed the exploit which allowed the DRM of Windows Media files to be stripped -- effectively removing DRM leaving the files to be freely distributed. This is another case of DRM being cracked, or bypassed, shortly after release.

Previously in Digital Rights Management cracking news, the DRM behind HD media was cracked; Apples FairPlay implementation of DRM behind iTunes was cracked by a program called QTFairUse6; so is their really any point to DRM?

The music industry is always moaning about drops in "singles sales", sadly they don't realise a growing proportion of people either buy the album, or download the single from iTunes or another online distrubtor. So it is no wonder the sales of singles have dropped.

What media distributors need to look at is the cost of implementing effective DRM. At the rate these so called "uncrackable" systems get cracked, or bypassed, the distrubtors must be employing teams of people to keep up. Surely it makes sense to ditch DRM altogether? They will no more hassle and bad news when the latest implementation gets cracked. Companies should just count pirated losses as unavoidable and leave the cracking down on piracy to someone else -- after all is it not true that prevention is better than a cure?