Microsoft sends cease and desist to FairUse4WM sites

GIANT MULTINATIONAL Microsoft is sending the boys around to website owners who post FairUse4WM.

The software strips Windows Media player of its DRM and enables its music to be copied to a CD.

According to Ars Technica, Vole has sent cease and desist orders to web sites hosting the FairUse4WM program.

One owner of the BG4G got his cease and desist via e-mail. The letter claimed his site was "offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorised activities relating to copyrighted works published by Microsoft."

However there is a bit of a weak point in Vole's argument. FairUse4WM does not actually use any Volish code to do its work, so is probably not breaking any intellectual property laws.

Although the Vole might have been able to have had a stab at taking the hosting ISPs under the US DCMA laws, which have provisions for cracking, the letters also have come from Microsoft-Antipiracy.com which is based in the UK where the law is a bit more nebulous.

More here. µ