[PLUG] MP3 alternatives

[Jacoby, David]

> From: Bryan M Kennedy [mailto:kennedy2@purdue.edu]

> Does anybody know if there are any Linux utilities to play wma files?

I sincerely doubt it. I figure the first MS software available 
under linux would be IE, and I consider that to be an unlikely
thing to ever happen. (I've seen IE on Solaris, so it is possible,
but to run it, it first created an emulated Windows environment
and then runs IE in that. It scores an astronomically high Lovelace
Index.)

> If not, then are there any conversion utilities that could take a
> protected wma file and transform it into an mp3 file?

Googling around, I found these two.
http://www.blazemp.com/help/html/wma_to_wav_mp3.htm
http://www.litexmedia.com/
Both seem to run using BadOS(tm) technology, which might be emulatable
under WINE. And if it's a locked wma, it doesn't look like you can
unlock it. 

But there's always plugging the output of your CD player to the input
of your Linux box. A bit lo-fi, but if you can listen to a song, you
can record a song.

If the industry considers the listening audience to be the enemy,
it behoves us to be a smart enemy.

> Just keeping an eye out for future activities of the RIAA.

-- 
Dave Jacoby, Systems Administrator for Arnett Clinic
jacobyd@arnett.com
	Let others praise ancient times; 
	I am glad I was born in these. -- Ovid (43 B.C. - A.D. 18)