DoubleTwist: Licensing FairPlay (Apple iTunes DRM)
CNN has posted a follow-up to the previous news that Jon Lech Johansen ("DVD Jon") had reverse engineered Apple's FairPlay Digital Rights Management (DRM) format.
Johansen has formed a company called DoubleTwist to license the format to other companies interested in providing DRM protected files that are playable on Apple's iPod. Apple has not allowed other companies to license FairPlay, effectively blocking most companies from selling DRM protected songs that can play on the iPod.
The article states that "an unnamed client will soon use the technology so its copy-protected content will be playable on iPods". Details are not available yet.
DVD Jon had previously circumvented FairPlay's DRM in 2003, and since then multiple other tools have appeared to provide similar functionality for updated versions of Quicktime/iTunes. Jon is also credited for developing an algorithm named deCSS to strip a DVD of its encryption (called Content Scramble System, or CSS), hence his nickname.
Johansen has formed a company called DoubleTwist to license the format to other companies interested in providing DRM protected files that are playable on Apple's iPod. Apple has not allowed other companies to license FairPlay, effectively blocking most companies from selling DRM protected songs that can play on the iPod.
The article states that "an unnamed client will soon use the technology so its copy-protected content will be playable on iPods". Details are not available yet.
DVD Jon had previously circumvented FairPlay's DRM in 2003, and since then multiple other tools have appeared to provide similar functionality for updated versions of Quicktime/iTunes. Jon is also credited for developing an algorithm named deCSS to strip a DVD of its encryption (called Content Scramble System, or CSS), hence his nickname.
Top Rated Comments
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69 months ago
Who was asking why MS has to lockdown Windows with an absurd level of protection via WGA? Here is your answer.
69 months ago
Bad news for iTunes Music Store.
Can only be a good thing for iPod and its users, tho?
Can only be a good thing for iPod and its users, tho?
69 months ago
Not sure why people think this is bad. Fair use if you ask me.
OTOH it's possibly open to abuse but i think it's worth the risk. I'm not overly keen on DRM stopping people doing what they like with stuff they've paid for. I wouldn't touch a DRM CD for example. All my downloads are from places that don't do DRM (and have at least 320kbps mp3 or better).
OTOH it's possibly open to abuse but i think it's worth the risk. I'm not overly keen on DRM stopping people doing what they like with stuff they've paid for. I wouldn't touch a DRM CD for example. All my downloads are from places that don't do DRM (and have at least 320kbps mp3 or better).
69 months ago
Not sure why this is getting so much buzz again. Real Harmony has been out there for over two years now, and even news of this me-too implementation from Johansen already ran 3 weeks ago on MacRumors. Nothing much at all has changed WRT the iTunes Store's market position.
69 months ago
One of the things that irritates me about iTMS is the fact that I can't play my purchased tracks on anything other than an iPod.
This doesn't currently affect me as I own an iPod but I would like to be able to use them on other devices as well (such as AAC compatible phones etc.) . This restriction means that I do not purchase as much from iTMS as I might otherwise.
I am wondering how much extra money Apple gets from locking users of iTMS into the iPod system.
Would 'de-regulating' FairPlay in this way encourage owners of other players to buy from iTMS and would this extra revenue offset that losses from lower (potentially) from iPod sales?
This doesn't currently affect me as I own an iPod but I would like to be able to use them on other devices as well (such as AAC compatible phones etc.) . This restriction means that I do not purchase as much from iTMS as I might otherwise.
I am wondering how much extra money Apple gets from locking users of iTMS into the iPod system.
Would 'de-regulating' FairPlay in this way encourage owners of other players to buy from iTMS and would this extra revenue offset that losses from lower (potentially) from iPod sales?
69 months ago
Apple will probably update iPods with a slight tweak to their DRM, breaking any music people have downloaded from anyone other than Apple.
69 months ago
He should discuss detailed and undisclosed information about Leopard on his website and to the media while he is at it.
69 months ago
I may be wrong but I suspect that the success of iPod / iTunes is as much about ease of use and pleasant experience that comes from Apple's, hopefully patented, software and hardware interfaces. There was inevitably going to be ways around the system like this but I am not convinced this news will herald a disaster for Apple.
I don't see clunky interfaced Zunes and the like suddenly becoming more tolerable because they can now hack a tune from iTunes to play on it. Perhaps a hack that allowed an iPod user to buy and run music from a cheaper source might be more successful and that would damage iTunes sales but at the same time increase iPod sales maybe?
I don't see clunky interfaced Zunes and the like suddenly becoming more tolerable because they can now hack a tune from iTunes to play on it. Perhaps a hack that allowed an iPod user to buy and run music from a cheaper source might be more successful and that would damage iTunes sales but at the same time increase iPod sales maybe?
69 months ago
One of the things that irritates me about iTMS is the fact that I can't play my purchased tracks on anything other than an iPod.
You can, with limitations. If you burn to CD, then rip to a lossless format, you can put an exact copy on anything. Right now the resulting larger files really do present a problem when moving to other players (unless you're willing to accept recompression losses), but time will erase this as storage density goes up and prices drop.For example, the current high-end iPod can already hold more uncompressed audio than the original could hold in the iTMS compressed form, yet the newer model costs a little less.
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