DVD John - A Blessing in Disguise?
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On October 25th news reports came out about a Norwegian hacker dubbed DVD John, most notably known for cracking the copy-protection technologies on DVDs back when he was only 15. DVD John is all grown up now, and at 22 years old he recently announced that he has cracked the DRM protection on iTunes music. The DRM protection on songs downloaded via iTunes will only allow users to play that particular music on their iPod. What DVD John has said to have archived, is crack that protection, opening up iTune downloaded music to all the flurry of mp3 players out there.
What does this have to do with the Zune? Many people have said how they would love to switch to the Zune and ditch their iPods, but are tied down due to having hundreds of dollars $$$ of their music collection in iTunes, and rather not lose all of their much beloved music. This crack that DVD John has done could possible open the flood gates and allow iPod users to switch to the Zune and bring all their iTunes music along with them for the ride.
At the moment the crack is not out yet, DVD John plans to cash in on his work via his technology firm DoubleTwist Ventures, and is currently looking for a buyer for the crack. Will this crack come out into the main stream? Who knows. If it does, it could very well be a blessing in disguise for iPod to Zune converters.
[Thanks Ty]
I bet apple pays him off.
Isn’t it possible to burn the iStore titles onto a CD-R and rip+convert them to MP3 afterwards? Sure, an extra step is need if compared to a DRM removal tool, but isn’t this the better way to go?
The article you linked to appears to have misinterpreted the facts. What DVD John announced is that he “cracked” the ability to ADD Apple’s FairPlay DRM to music, not STRIP it away.
This would allow a competing music service (such as Rhapsody or Urge) to sell copy-protected music that is compatible with the millions of existing iPods, dramatically increasing their potential market. (This hasn’t been possible before, because Apple doesn’t license its FairPlay DRM.)
This is why DVD John is looking to sell the technology to an established company — there’s no direct value to end users. (Why add DRM to your own files?)
Engadget said on July 6th:
“But it gets better. To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you’ve already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They’ll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they believe it’ll be worth it to acquire converts to their new player.”
Has this changed?
On July 6th Engaget said:
“But it gets better. To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you’ve already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They’ll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they believe it’ll be worth it to acquire converts to their new player.”
Has this changed?
Yes,
That was a rumor made up. Do you know how much $$ that would cost for Microsoft to pretty much buy every song people had purchased?
In which case, I really hope that joergsl’s theory is correct. I’ll have to try it sometime.
BJ Nemeth is correct. What hasn’t been mentioned is that iTunes DRM has been “cracked” for a while now. Just use QTFairUse6. Google it, download, and run. It’s 1x, but it grabs the actual unencrypted AAC datastream right out of QuickTime (iTunes doen’t play squat - it’s just a music management application that runs QuickTime for playback purposes.) After about 2 days worth of playback, all my iTunes music is now DRM-free.