iPod Copy Protection Cracked

DailyTech ^ | 10/24/2006 | Marcus Yam

[Echo Talon]

The notorious DVD Jon strikes at Apple's stranglehold on the PMP market

Jon Lech Johansen's claim to fame was helping to crack DVD encryption by creating a little thing called DeCSS. His feat earned him the moniker of DVD Jon, plus the attentions of the entire technical world and several legal authorities.

Now 22 and his own company, named DoubleTwist, Jon Johansen is set to unravel Apple's iPod/iTunes protection scheme. Fortune Magazine has the full story:

[Echo Talon]

click the link to read the whole article and reach embeded links..

[Obadiah]

Wow. What took so long?

[rwfromkansas]

Wow....great news!

Now we can legally use songs we buy on itunes for our personal use.

Not have our usage rights chained by Apple.

This guy also did a good service by removing copy protection for DVDs, so we can back-up personal copies.

Yes, such technology can be used for illegal things.

But, it can be used for legal uses as well, just like a VCR.

Jon is a hero for consumer rights.

[Echo Talon]

nothing is secure thats what i have been saying for a long time.

Its was made my man it has flaws.

[rwfromkansas]

He won't be releasing it to the general public though, so looks like my proclamation of hero is too quick.

He is doing a good thing, however.

[Echo Talon]

not sure what he will eventually do with this(heck Apple and even MS could get together along with the music industry and buy him out if he caves) who knows... if he released the code however, songs in the wild right now could be cracked but soon as the code was in Apple's hands they could change it probably(so his stuff would need to be updated slightly to keep working for newer songs) Apple would also need to be careful that their updates didn't mess up compatibility with older iPods etc.