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OpenMG is an SDMI-compliant digital rights management scheme by Sony. It is designed for audio files in ATRAC3 format. The compliant software, eg. Sony SonicStage, is usually capable of transcoding MP3 and wav files to OpenMG/ATRAC3. The file extensions OpenMG-encrypted files are .omg and .oma.
There was already at least one reported case when a security update of Windows broke OpenMG-compliant software. This issue was later resolved. Microsoft Help and Support: OpenMG-compliant music software does not work correctly after you apply the MS04-032 Security Update for Windows XP and for Windows 2000
Sony have recently dropped DRM on ripped files in Sonicstage V3.3+.
Sonicstage 3.4 includes an option to de-DRM your whole library (this takes some time though) allowing as many copies of files as you like, on as many players as you want, on as many PCs as you want. You can even share non-DRM files with friends or colleagues.
However, Sonicstage 3.4 does not de-DRM files without a license. So only the original installation can be used to de-DRM the files.
The compliant music organization systems, eg. OpenMG Jukebox, work by "checking out" and "checking in" the files to/from portable players, keeping only one copy unlocked in order to hinder proliferation of copies.
Criticisms of OpenMG
Lock-out
The 'checking in' and 'checking out' of files is often cumbersome and risky in comparison with unprotected data. Side effects include user complaints of being locked out of their own original recordings, unable to transfer them to the computer. 42hours.org is a "consumer direct action website" dedicated to 42 hours of intellectual property destroyed by Sony® SonicStage™. With combination of OpenMG with MagicGate, Sony intends to restrict the files to be only moved instead of copied, artificially emulating the restrictions of physical objects.Inability to read 'corrupted' ID3 tags
OpenMG modules also tend to choke on corrupted MP3 ID3 tags. RealPlayer customer support forumProprietary software
With some Sony portable audio players it is not possible to directly drag and drop the desired tracks to the device's directory structure, but a considerably cumbersome process of using Sony's own or compatible software must be undergone.Non-standard Table Of Contents
OpenMG protection applied to music compact discs relies on nonstandard disc TOC. This is somewhat similar to Cactus Data Shield scheme, without the artificially introduced C2 errors. cdfreaks.com forum: complaints about scrambled Tables Of ContentsSee also
External links
Notes
"OpenMG"