As expected, Microsoft will soon release a patch preventing FairUse4WM from breaking the DRM protection on files encoded with Windows Media Player 10 or 11. We tried this out in the labs, for testing purposes only, of course, and the app does work as advertised. PC Magazine's Mark Hachmen got the word from Redmond:

"Microsoft is aware that a tool recently surfaced that circumvents Windows Media Digital Rights Management technology – breaking the content protection that our content partners apply to their intellectual property such as music or video content," said Marcus Matthias, senior product manager of Microsoft's Windows Client Division, in a statement provided to PC Magazine. "Fortunately, the Windows Media DRM system has built-in renewability, we have an update to address the circumvention, and are working with our partners to deploy this solution."

But this is just going to be a temporary fix. In a few months "FairUse5WM" or some such app will come out an bypass the new restrictions, and on and on. The whole thing seem pretty silly to me. If a user is intent on stealing music, there are easier ways to do it than breaking the DRM on a subscription service.