Digital media Usage Rights/switching computers -- help!

Can anyone advise as to how to re-aquire the right to play music files I already bought and paid for?

This must be something many of us "switching countries" and possibly aquiring new computers must have to deal with -- our legally downloaded music files running into difficulties.

Here's the story:

I left behind my old computer in the US, but I loaded all my files and folders from that hard drive onto an external portable hard drive.

For extra backup I also burned both audio and data files of all my music downloads onto CDs, and I have all those.

All (well most!) of the music files are fully legal purchases which I bought from iTunes, Amazon.com, and also the old MSN Music in the days when it still sold 99 cents songs in competition with iTunes.

The only problem is, when I backed up all my music, I don't think I remembered to back up any licence rights, and I've since gathered this must be done.

(Edit: if it helps, I am still in possession of the actual hard drive pulled out of my old computer, so I can still "go in there" and get any file that might be the key to the licences to play these songs.)

Now that I've loaded my files into my new computer, when I try to play a song, I'm getting a prompt saying this computer is not authorised to play the song, and that I have to aquire the usage rights for each song. But when I click to do so, some rights eventually come back in, and others fail.

I can't believe I'm going to have to do this for every file!

Is there anything else I can do? The files won't play even on VLC player -- the Rights issue pops up everywhere. I'm frustrated with this DMR stuff because I'm not trying to do anything illegal, I bought these files and I just want to keep listening to them!

Any help with a "to do" list of exactly what to do to reaquire rights, or exactly what I should have done to keep them during the computer transfer for future reference, and maybe this will also help others who are "moving into" a new computer and may run up against this issue with their dowloaded music.

You can authorize all your itunes files in one go by loading itunes and adding the new machine as authorized to your account. I know Amazon software does the same thing.

I assume something along those lines is possible with MSN as well.

You can authorize all your itunes files in one go by loading itunes and adding the new machine as authorized to your account. I know Amazon software does the same thing.

I assume something along those lines is possible with MSN as well.

Thank you Mort, I did not know that! Sounds like it will make life a lot easier than it looked a minute ago, hah.

Hmm. I just found that I've already authorized this computer with iTunes. Having confirmed that, I tried again to add one of my imported files into the library, and I got a prompt box saying it will convert the file to WMA -- all well and good. I click yes, but then another box comes up saying it cannot convert protected files -- again running into the DMR protection on the song files.

I either need a way to remove the protection, or still have to re-aquire the rights to these files that I imported from backup which this computer, MSN, and iTunes still won't recognize as legitimate...

For extra backup I also burned both audio and data files of all my music downloads onto CDs, and I have all those.

Are the CDs data discs or music discs?  If they're music discs, you can just import the tracks to your library.  If they're data discs then you'll still need the licenses and I don't know what to do about that.

Are the CDs data discs or music discs?  If they're music discs, you can just import the tracks to your library.  If they're data discs then you'll still need the licenses and I don't know what to do about that.

I think I burned both types, a set of music/audio discs that can be played on a CD player (even though those are becoming obsolete, lol!) and also I think I saved data too.

I was thinking of importing the plain old music/audio burnings, as you suggest, as I've heard that those somehow are free of their licence and it's only the original file that will limit itself to five computers and seven burnings, or whatever happens?

Wondering, though, if importing the music disc versions of the files will cause a loss in quality to the file it creates on the new computer? Digital information shouldn't really change but I seem to have heard something about audio data losing bytes as you transfer from a previously burned audio file?

I was thinking of importing the plain old music/audio burnings, as you suggest, as I've heard that those somehow are free of their licence and it's only the original file that will limit itself to five computers and seven burnings, or whatever happens?

Yes, if you import the music tracks from audio CDs they won't be DRM protected anymore and you won't have this problem again (with those tracks).  The down side is unless you burned complete albums together (i.e. you burned the 13 tracks of the Foo Fighters The Colour and the Shape to one CD with nothing else on it), you'll probably have to do some editing of the album information once it's imported into your library in order to make it all correct.  If you don't care about this kind of thing, then don't worry about it.

Wondering, though, if importing the music disc versions of the files will cause a loss in quality to the file it creates on the new computer? Digital information shouldn't really change but I seem to have heard something about audio data losing bytes as you transfer from a previously burned audio file?

This is one of those things that is technically true, but most of the time doesn't make any practical difference.  When the original track was converted from the master file/tape to make an mp3/wma/aac file in order to sell it to you it was compressed, so there was data/quality loss before you ever bought it.

When you burned it to CD there was no further quality loss, but when you bring it back into your computer as an mp3/wma/aac you'll be compressing it again, so it's possible that you'll lose quality, but it's the kind of quality loss you most likely won't notice.  The higher the bit rate of the mp3/wma/aac files, the less quality loss there will be.  In my music library I've got files encoded as high as 320 Kbps and as low as 24 Kbps, with most of them at 192 or 128.  Most of the time I don't notice the compression.

All of this assumes you're not a sound engineer or professional musician or something like that.  If you are, it's more likely you will notice the quality loss.

Hmm. I just found that I've already authorized this computer with iTunes. Having confirmed that, I tried again to add one of my imported files into the library, and I got a prompt box saying it will convert the file to WMA -- all well and good. I click yes, but then another box comes up saying it cannot convert protected files -- again running into the DMR protection on the song files.

I either need a way to remove the protection, or still have to re-aquire the rights to these files that I imported from backup which this computer, MSN, and iTunes still won't recognize as legitimate...

Are you sure it doesn't say "Converting WMA files?" It specifically says "Converting
TO WMA?"

ITunes doesn't natively play WMA files. When you try to open one with itunes, it'll try to convert it to unprotected aac or an mp3 file. And it won't convert protected WMAs.

Before you actually start reripping your collection, which is a pretty big pain in the butt, first let's try this:

Open itunes. FROM WITHIN ITUNES, try to play a file that you KNOW you bought in the itunes store. Does it play?

I think the problem you're getting is that when you installed itunes, your WMA files became associated with that program. Meaning, when you click a WMA files, the computer tries to open it with itunes instead of a more suitable player. If the popup you're getting is "Converting WMA File" and not "Converting TO WMA file" then this is almost certainly the case. ITunes obnoxiously does this during installation unless you tell it not to.

If that's the case, you'll have to undo it which is about 100x less hassle than either having to reauthorize your collection one-by-one, or reripping it from an audio cd.

I tend to download the CD off of BitTorrent in a high quality file (or FLAC, but that's overkill for most people!) and replace the one I purchased.  I've done enough sound engineering work to notice a different between 96k and 128k recordings (as well as between 192k and a lossless format like FLAC) and get bothered by that difference enough to get the higher-end formats.  I'd keep the audio CDs (and maybe burn a copy of the DRM stuff you've got in your iTunes database, etc) but download a higher quality file (128k and 192k tends to be good enough for most)  that doesn't have the DRM bits in the format you use the most (AAC and MP3 are the most versatile for audio players).

Thanks for all input everyone; this is interesting stuff.

Mort yes, I should have said "convert from WMA" rather than "to WMA", yes, that's the prompt I'm getting from iTunes.

The odd thing is, this issue is coming up on only some of the files, while the rest went into my library without an argument, lol!

Yet some of those ones were also purchases from the same source with presumably DMR attached; weird.

I think for the troublesome ones I will just import the audio ones I burned. I'm sure there will be some loss, and I might notice it a wee bit -- in my dark and musty past I have had shady dealings as a...(scream of horror) musician and dabbler in studio stuff  . But I don't get as fussed as some engineers I've known who are fanatical about everything their ears hear, hahha! Impleri you would probably graon at some of the awful quality I've put up with! 

Yeah, it'll only give you this prompt when you're trying to import WMA files. You did not buy those on itunes: itunes doesn't sell WMA files, only aac. Actually, it doesn't even natively play them without conversion, as you have seen.

So what you need to do to activate the rest of the files is to install the msn music store software and authorize this computer in there. That should take care of it.

Yeah, it'll only give you this prompt when you're trying to import WMA files. You did not buy those on itunes: itunes doesn't sell WMA files, only aac. Actually, it doesn't even natively play them without conversion, as you have seen.

So what you need to do to activate the rest of the files is to install the msn music store software and authorize this computer in there. That should take care of it.

Yes, those WMA files must be earlier purchases from a few years back when "MSN Music" were still selling downloads, before they gave up in the face of iTunes greater popularity.

I've just googled and found that the USA MSN Music now exists only as an information resource, but there is still a UK MSN Music that still sells actual downloads. As I bought the original files from the US site, I'm not sure it would work to join up on the UK site and hope for the old licensing -- I don't know. I might try the audio discs I burned, it's probably the easiest and fastest route to getting these songs sorted again. Thanks for helping figure this stuff out though.
 

I've just googled and found that the USA MSN Music now exists only as an information resource, but there is still a UK MSN Music that still sells actual downloads.

Unfortunately, the UK MSN Music store has closed, too.  You're probably safer in the long term ripping the songs from your CDs, and then you won't have to deal with the license crap.

MSN Music US is still running their authorization servers until 2011. But Camoscato is right, in this case even if you manage to authorize the songs, you might want to *cough cough* look into making them less dependent on Microsoft's whims, if you get my meaning.