“Check it out, Up With People’s greatest hits! Let’s play it dude!”
Jon Lech Johansen, AKA, DVD Jon, has cracked Apple’s FairPlay so that third parties can use it. Essentially, it would allow services such as Napster to sell DRMed music to iPod users. The question of the day, is adding more DRM and killing Apple’s vertical business model legal?
The Inquirer – Wednesday 25 October 2006:
CRACKER, JOHN Lech Johansen has released a “security enhancement” to Apple’s iPod which undoes the proprietary iTunes system.
According to the Sydney Morning Hearld, DVD Jon, who at the tender age of 15 cracked the encryption scheme used by DVDs, claims he has worked out how to beat the iPod and its FairPlay encryption technology.
His outfit, DoubleTwist, has developed a program to get around any of Apple’s iTunes content restrictions and he plans to license it to digital music stores.
It appears that Johansen’s technique involves tricking an iPod into thinking it’s playing an iTunes-purchased song by emulating FairPlay.
The kicker for Apple is that Johansen thinks the software is legal because it does not remove any protection and is technically adding to it.
He said that his software protects copyrights, but does not keep you locked into the iPod. It will be interesting if the US justice system agrees with him.
I would think the US justice system would have little to say about it since I believe he lives in sweden.
“I would think the US justice system would have little to say about it since I believe he lives in sweden.”
Next time read the article. Jon’s intent is to license the technique to third parties, including those in the US.
Actually, he’s been residing in the US since June.
http://nanocrew.net/2006/06/
#3, wow, that guy loves to live dangerously!
This is great, i think fairplay is sweet. This guy only wants to let people mix thier cds, I mean i buy cds and i think everyone should have the right to mix them, and do whatever they see fit with it.
This is from the U.S. Copyright Office summary of the DMCA:
“Reverse engineering (section 1201(f)). This exception permits
circumvention, and the development of technological means for such
circumvention, by a person who has lawfully obtained a right to use a
copy of a computer program for the sole purpose of identifying and
analyzing elements of the program necessary to achieve interoperability
with other programs, to the extent that such acts are permitted under
copyright law.”
This sounds just like what Real Netowrks has been doing for a couple years. If you poke around their site you can see that their music download service works on iPods and has drm that tricks the iPod into thinking it is Apple’s Fairplay.
If I read correctly, DVD Jon is has a technique for allowing online music retailers to play their own form of DRM’d music on the ipod. He may be in the clear, but the license accompanying Apple’s iPod says purchasers cannot “copy, decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, (or) attempt to derive the source code of” the software.
Any online retailer licensing DVD Jon’s technique will at the very least face intense legal scrutiny from Apple. RealNetworks tried the exact same thing a while back. Apple firmware updated them outside of the sandbox.
“Apple firmware updated them outside of the sandbox.”
Yeah, I totally agree. No one would ever license this technique as Apple would simply eliminate it via a mandatory firmware update.
No firmware upgrade is mandatory.
“No firmware upgrade is mandatory.”
Apple could always tie the use of iTunes with a specific version of firmware. You don’t upgrade, you can’t use iTunes. That’s mandatory.
Can you even add music to an iPod without iTunes? As far as I know iTunes is mandatory. And even if you don’t need iTunes to use an iPod, why would anyone buy an outrageously priced iPod and not use iTunes?
“CRACKER, JOHN Lech Johansen has released …”
Come on now, just because he is from Sweden doesn’t mean he has to be called out like that! If DVD Jon was black, do you think he would take offense to being called CRACKER?
“You don’t upgrade, you can’t use iTunes. That’s mandatory. ”
I downgraded to 4.7 after they released iTunes 6. For some reason it made my laptop super-buggy. I still used my Nano with 4.7. An upgrade to iTunes does nothing to the DRM already on the music that was purchased with a previous version, and it does nothing to the iPod. If you don’t upgrade, nothing happens.
Still not mandatory.
“If you don’t upgrade, nothing happens.”
You’re saying what did happen. I’m talking about what could happen. Could Apple tie iTunes to a specific version of iPod firmware? Yes. Thus, if you want to use iTunes and your iPod, you’d be compelled to update to that version of firmware? Yes. Would that make it mandatory? Yes.
I’m not saying that Apple has ever done this. I’m merely saying that Apple could!
It wouldn’t make it mandatory – it would make it a requirement for the store.
Mandatory would be some way of making your ipod useless without it. The ipod will work fine (and so would the music you bought) without the new iTunes software, and without the store, so really all they would be doing is saying to people “hey, we just screwed ourselves out of customers”
Of course to get that far they would need some really awful upgrade that caused an outcry.
Frankly fairplay users deserve what they get. I’ve bought two tracks from iTunes, and I doubt I’ll buy more – the DRM just makes things a pain in the ass.
#12: I’m probably missing the sarcasm… A cracker, in this sense of the word, is someone who break computer systems, as compared to a hacker to tweaks them to get them to work the way he or she wants them to.
The simple, over-generalized version:
Crackers steal credit cards.
Hackers tweak the hell out of their systems.
However, the two words have merged thanks to the mainstream media.
Isn’t Windows Genuine Advantage mandatory to get those other updates? Why can’t Apple do something similar?
Because iTunes isn’t an OS? I can stop iTunes downloading something should I wish to… or eventually switch to another product (there is other software out there than I can use to get music onto my iPod if I need to)
With Windows it is a lot harder.. if I ever want to use the net anyhow..
#1, 12
Jon is from Norway.
Thank you Gregory. At least someone understands.
And Chris! Come on man, really? You thought explaining to me what a “cracker” is would help clarify the story for me? I AM on the internet, you know. And I’m pretty sure someone who tweaks XP so they have a cool looking wallpaper would not be a hacker…
I guess I’ll have to explain that “cracker” is a somewhat derogatory term used for white people. This is similar to “honky”.
I hope you can somehow overcome your oblivious nature some day. Good luck!