| Subject: Getting Around iTunes DRM |
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Date Posted: 11:40:15 03/19/05 Sat
Getting Around iTunes DRM
March 19, 2005
Thomas Mennecke
It appears that Jon "I'll get around DRM if I want to" Johansen is at it again. The skilled programmer that brought the Internet, among other items, DeCSS and FairKeys now brings us PyMusique. PyMusique is an iTunes interface that allows anyone with an iTunes subscription to do many things the proprietary iTunes program cannot.
What can PyMusique do that iTunes cannot? It allows an individual to preview songs and redownload songs purchased through PyMusique. That's right. PhMusique is not total iTunes rip-off tool. In order to use PyMusique, you must be a registered subscriber of iTunes. If you wish, you can register through PyMusique.
However, the big attribute of PyMusique is when it comes to Digital Rights Management - or lack there of. When an individual purchases a song from iTunes using PyMusique, it does not re-encrypt the song using Apple's "FairPlay" DRM scheme. What the end user has is DRM-free AAC file that can be copied, burned or transferred - basically the file can be used any way the owner wishes.
"Just like Mail.app is a client for accessing mail servers, iTunes is a client for accessing the iTunes Music Store servers. PyMusique is a new client that uses the same communication protocol that iTunes uses to access the iTMS," Johansen told MacCentral. "When an iTMS client buys a song, iTMS will provide the song in m4a format (unprotected). Unlike iTunes, PyMusique will not add DRM to the song before saving it to disk."
Unlike most of Jon Lech Johansen’s projects, he had the assistance of two other programmers; Travis Watkins and Cody Brocious (no relation to Scott Brosius, third baseman of the 1998 World Champion New York Yankees.) While Jon hammered out the Windows version of the program, Travis and Cody developed the Linux version.
When Jon Johansen created DeCSS, it was intended for Linux users to watch DVDs on their computers. DeCSS removed the CSS or Content Scrambling System from their DVDs and allowed users to copy the VOB files onto their hard drives. Since this was the original intention of DeCSS, the Norwegian courts acquitted Mr. Johansen of copyright infringement. However, now that a PyMusique Windows version exists, Apple may have a legal claim on their side.
Apples' terms of agreement states "You will not access the Service by any means other than through software that is provided by Apple for accessing the Service."
While statement may apply more to the end user, News.com spoke with copyright lawyer Annette Hurst who said the software appears to cross legal lines, especially the dreaded DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act.)
"I would be very concerned about this if I were their lawyer."
We'll see. Jon has been there and done that before. However, his 17 year old American buddies better start saving up those piggy banks for the inevitable Apple legal onslaught.
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