Microsoft Digital Rights Management
Windows Media Player uses Microsoft Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology to preserve the rights of content owners who protect their music or video products in this manner. You must have a DRM license in order to play protected content.

If you acquire protected content from a music or video service, you may receive the associated license at the same time. If not, when Windows Media Player tries to use a protected file that does not have a current license, Windows Media Player will attempt to acquire the license for you. This can be done through your online store, or directly from a license server on the Internet.

License Acquisition
If there is an online store associated with the protected file, software installed on your computer by the online store may obtain the license before you play the content. If this software requests any data from you or collects any additional information automatically, this data will be subject to the online store's privacy practices.

If the online store did not supply a license, or if the protected content is not associated with any of your online stores, Windows Media Player will request a license directly from a license server on the Internet. The license server's Web address is specified in the protected file; most license servers are operated by companies other than Microsoft. When requesting a license, Windows Media Player will provide the license server standard computer information, an ID for the music or video file, the action you have requested (such as play or burn), information about the DRM components on your computer such as their revision and security levels, and a unique identifier for your computer. The unique identifier is used only to generate a license for your computer and, because it is enclosed in an encrypted license request, is not available to the license server in a way that uniquely identifies you or your computer.

By default, Windows Media Player will automatically attempt to acquire a license silently unless the license server requires some input from you (such as registration information or a fee). You can turn off automatic license acquisition. If you do so, you will be prompted to obtain a license for any new content that requires one. To prevent Windows Media Player from acquiring licenses automatically, do the following:

1.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
2.
On the Privacy tab, clear the Acquire licenses automatically for protected content check box.


Please note that this setting does not affect license acquisition from online stores.