DRM stands for digital rights management, which is a method of copy protection that controls usage of media files. DRM technologies secure the intellectual property ownerships and the confidentiality rights of digital content creators and owners from the time the digital information or content goes from creator to distributor to the consumers.
DRM technologies can control file access (number of views, length of views), altering, sharing, copying, printing, and saving. These technologies may be contained within the operating system, program software, or in the actual hardware of a device. In today's fast paced world, With piracy and unauthorized access harming the growth of business, DRM technology is slowly becoming a permanent part of the corporate and Internet security infrastructures.
Some audio file types, such as WMA and MP4, have built-in DRM support, others, such as FLAC and Vorbis, do not offer built-in support for this technology because they are created and developed by the Open Source community. The MP3 format was created long before DRM and does not support DRM either.
The trend of releasing digital products without DRM has been gaining popularity lately. Even Apple gives you the option to convert your record library to DRM-Free format.
Is it possible to bypass DRM?
Yes, there are two ways around it. The first one is used when ripping a DVD and uses reverse engineered codes. Of course, this software is illegal and is used at your own risk. I don't think this methodology is worth much time since the era of DVDs is over and Blue Ray discs are losing their position to streaming services.
The second method is simpler and uses audio recording at the output of the player. In the case of home audio equipment you always get not an exact copy with worse quality. For computer equipment the situation is more favorable - you can record a bit-perfect copy using advanced recorders.
How legal is it to bypass DRM?
It depends on your local laws. In most countries you can only make copies for personal use because you have the legal rights to the original recording. The most common use of copies is for listening on mobile devices or as a backup. If you distribute copies over the internet, you will definitely get in trouble with law enforcement.
Our audio converter can't be used to convert DRM protected audio files as decryption is a direct violation of the law. At the same time you can use our audio recorder to create copies of any content as it records audio from speakers and does not violate licensing conditions.