Is license downloading safe? (In Windows Media Player)

[Hank Kinsley]

When you are prompted by WMP to obtain a license to watch a video file, is it safe to get it? I have always clicked "no" because I wasn't sure if it could be some sort of virus. What do these licenses do?


Thanks

[Forum Troll]

It's the DRM (digital rights management) tag encoded into the file. It is safe to download them. Most times you need it to watch the file.

[CrayonEater]

It's the "Automatically download codecs" feature that you have to disable. That can load malicious codecs. You cannot (as far as anyone knows) acquire a virus directly from the license itself. It IS theoretically possible that DRMed video/music may contain exploit code, but I'm not aware of any at this time.

A far more likely problem is that video and music may contain scripting commands to automatically open your browser to a website. This can occur with unprotected as well as protected content. Such content is usually a form of spam. But the real danger is, especially if your default browser is Internet Explorer, that the site the media file opens up to may contain malicious scripts or browser exploits. This type of thing can be prevented completely by unchecking the box labelled "Run script commands when present" in Windows Media Player.

However, much - if not most - of the protected content out there is a form of spam or extortion, especially if it's obtained from P2P networks. What spammers do is let you download a file, usually in WMV format or in a RAR or ZIP file that contains a WMV. But when you finally finish downloading the file, SURPRISE! You must purchase a license to actually play it.

[Hank Kinsley]

Okay, everything is disabled that you told me about. Is it safe to click yes when it asks to retrieve the license now? I don't want any crap on my brand new machine!