DRM Removal 4.0.6

DRM is short for Digital Rights Management. And according to the fountain of all knowledge that is Wikipedia, it is a “generic term for access control technologies that can be used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to impose limitations on the usage of digital content and devices.”

You might know it better as the darn feature that wouldn’t let you rip your own CDs after you paid good money for them. Or the feature that doesn’t let you play iTunes music after you bought it – and migrated to another computer. Why would you want to rip a CD? Perhaps because you would like to transfer the music from an audio CD to your computer! Or perhaps you simply want to back up your data. If you manage to scratch a CD badly enough, it will become unusable and you will lose whatever was on that disk.

Just as a little side note, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation, the organization that jumps to action whenever our freedoms in the networked world come into attack) considers DRM systems to be anti-competitive practices.

Okay, so what do you do if you want to circumvent DRM? You turn to software for help. More precisely, you turn to the aptly named DRM Removal application (which weighs in at some 20MB by the way, so it will take a bit of time to download, especially in a lousy internet connection). This application will make your DRM-related nightmares go away. It strips DRM protection and converts files to more user-friendly formats.

You can for example iTunes files to unprotected MP3 files. Then take those MP3s and play them on whatever device you want. Burn them onto a CD. Put them on an MP3 player. Do whatever you want.

If you have an audio CD and would like to transfer the music onto your computer, DRM Removal features a CD ripper. It will rip the music from the CD, and deliver it to your computer – without any DRM hassles.

Speaking of hassles, using this application should definitely not be a hassle. Not when the user interface is so easy to figure out and use. It may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but it is definitely easy to use.

DRM Removal is an easy to use tool that will remove DRM protection from DRM protected files. It will let you use your files as you see fit.

Pros

• Easy to use
• Strips audio and video files of DRM protection
• Works with all Windows Versions

Cons

• Free to use only during the 30-day trial period.
• Trial version is limited: video files are only 3 minutes long.
• Nag screen

DRM Removal has been reviewed by George Norman on 31 Mar 2010. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated DRM Removal 4 out of 5 stars, naming it Excellent