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HACKER UNLOCKS APPLE MUSIC DOWNLOAD PROTECTION
Reuters via Yahoo ^ | 24 October 2006

Posted on 10/24/2006 7:48:58 PM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 24 (Reuters) - A hacker who as a teen cracked the encryption on DVDs has found a way to unlock the code that prevents iPod users from playing songs from download music stores other than Apple Computer Inc.'s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) iTunes, his company said on Tuesday. Jon Lech Johansen, a 22-year-old Norway native who lives in San Francisco, cracked Apple's FairPlay copy-protection technology, said Monique Farantzos, managing director at DoubleTwist, the company that plans to license the code to businesses.

"What he did was basically reverse-engineer FairPlay," she said. "This allows other companies to offer content for the iPod." At the moment, Apple aims to keep music bought from its iTunes online music store only available for Apple products, while songs bought from other online stores typically do not work on iPods. But Johansen's technology could help rivals sell competing products that play music from iTunes and offer songs for download that work on iPods as they seek to take a bite out of Apple's dominance of digital music. ITunes commands an 88 percent share of legal song downloads in the United States, while the iPod dominates digital music player sales with more than 60 percent of the market. Cupertino, California-based Apple, whose profits have soared in recent years on the strength of the iPod, declined to comment.

Johansen, known as DVD Jon, gained fame when at the age of 15 he wrote and distributed a program that cracked the encryption codes on DVDs. This allowed DVDs to be copied and played back on any device. His latest feat could help companies such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research), Nokia (NOK.N: Quote, Profile, Research)(NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research), Sony Ericsson and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research), which have all announced plans over the past few months for music download services combined with new devices to challenge Apple.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apple; dmca; dvdjon; fairplay; hacker; ipod; itunes; jonlechjohansen; music
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To: MMcC
Because the function of the iPod is head and shoulders above other MP3 players. I REALLY didn't want to like the iPod, but after looking at everything last year, it was an easy choice.

You didn't look hard enough
21 posted on 10/24/2006 8:28:24 PM PDT by WackySam ("There's room for all God's creatures- right next to the taters")
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To: bluefish

The Sansa player is what my daughter got this last go around. She just loves it.


22 posted on 10/24/2006 8:30:26 PM PDT by ican'tbelieveit (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team# 36120), KW:Folding)
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To: ican'tbelieveit

What totally frustrated me was the non portability of my music within the Apple domain.

With Creative, what I loaded onto the player was truly portable.

My clients were enthralled with the Apple/ipod podcast verbage. I had to do what they wanted. I also got to see first had what it did to my 5,000 plus music library that I loaded into it & how it handled it VS the Creative.

I will go back to Creative...more of an open platform.


23 posted on 10/24/2006 8:32:59 PM PDT by vidbizz
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To: Toby06
It will play any MP3 you have. I use anapod software instead of iTunes. That software basically lets your PC see the iPod as a removable hard drive and you can move MP3's back and forth. MUCH better than iTunes.
24 posted on 10/24/2006 8:35:53 PM PDT by MMcC
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To: bluefish

Note that 50% of the cost of an MP3 player is memory. Sandisk has a huge advantage in this regard. They are laying the groundwork here, and abroad, to be the ones that will truly profit from the boom in MP3 sales.

It doesn't matter whether it is a player, or the phones. Wall Street doesn't get it yet either. Sandisk's stock took a big dive on fears of a memory glut after their recent earnings report (which beat expectations).

However, demand for the flash memory is outpacing supply at the moment (Apple noted this in the conference call). As the low cost producer, Sandisk is actually squeezing other competitors out. They are selling their players and they are also selling memory to the phone manufacturers. They are also earning royalties on intellectual property used by any other producer.

I woudln't discount Sandisk (maker of the Sansa "imitator") in the upcoming MP3 music battles.


25 posted on 10/24/2006 8:36:40 PM PDT by bluefish (Holding out for a worth tagline......)
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

The young generation is full of stupid kids. I wonder what they teach them in school these days.... /sarcasm


26 posted on 10/24/2006 8:36:44 PM PDT by maui_hawaii
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To: Toby06
I intentionally bought something other than iPod because of that exact reason.

Sony has a 2GB pocket model thats about the size of a fat flash drive.

2GB holds a lot of music.

27 posted on 10/24/2006 8:38:23 PM PDT by maui_hawaii
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To: ican'tbelieveit; bluefish

I'm one of the many who chose not to get on the iPod bandwagon. I got an earlier-generation flash mp3 player back in 2001, that only holds 128 MB, and I didn't use it much for audio uses until I became a Rush 24/7 member earlier this year. I hadn't even heard of the Sansa player until you two mentioned it on this thread. I might get one now.


28 posted on 10/24/2006 8:40:54 PM PDT by Pyro7480 ("Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world." - Pope Blessed Pius IX)
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To: ozoneliar
No. There are plenty of competitors. Apple just won't allow you to purchase music from other online stores and use it on their iPod product and, likewise, if you want to use their iTunes Music Store directly, you have to buy an iPod.

There are lots of players and even online music stores other than Apple's offerings. It just happens the market has generally chosen their products and service over the competition. You can always burn your purchased iTunes tracks to CD and reimport them as an MP3. Standard MP3 files are universally playable.

I suspect Apple's lawyers will be on this attempt quickly both on that stupid Digital Millennium Copyright Act and possible patent violations. They may even chance their software to make this "reverse engineered" software incompatible. They've done it once before.

29 posted on 10/24/2006 8:41:17 PM PDT by newzjunkey (Arnold-McClintock-YES 85 Parents Notified-YES 90 Eminent Domain-SanDiego:NO A,YES B & C)
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To: ican'tbelieveit

I could be wrong, but I do beleive you can get all that on a cell phone nowdays.


30 posted on 10/24/2006 8:42:23 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
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To: Toby06

My iPod has 8,600 songs on it, and opnly about 200 are from Apples online music store.

NO hacking was needed, because an iPod will play any MP3 transparently, with no problem at all.

This story is pure crap. The people writing this BS have no idea what they are talking about.


31 posted on 10/24/2006 8:42:51 PM PDT by John Valentine
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To: Mannaggia l'America
If Microsoft had produced a device that would only play music purchased from a Microsoft music store, they'd scream bloody murder and cry to the government and their friendly neighborhood liberal Democrat class action lawyer.

Well, I don't own an iPod, and I won't because of the Apple restrictions. Which means I don't spend money at iTunes, nor will I. I won't be visiting the local liberal class action lawyer either.

DRM, in what ever form, is a boil on the butt of the consumers. When I purchase content; I'll damn well play it on any device I own, or I won't buy it.

Needless to say, iTunes doesn't even rate a bookmark, or even a lowly history entry on my browser.

32 posted on 10/24/2006 8:44:40 PM PDT by AFreeBird (If American "cowboy diplomacy" did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.)
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

Hopefully this will drive down the costs of songs, with more competition and no more monopoly on the format.


33 posted on 10/24/2006 8:45:13 PM PDT by Ron in Acreage (VOTE DEMOCRAT--TERRORISTS ARE COUNTING ON IT)
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To: John Valentine

I couldn't load my kids ipods, but could load their friends mp3 player. Whyzat? I use a new compaq, btw.


34 posted on 10/24/2006 8:45:20 PM PDT by Toby06 (Diesel smoke makes me horny.)
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To: John Valentine
My iPod has 8,600 songs on it, and opnly about 200 are from Apples online music store. ...

NO hacking was needed, because an iPod will play any MP3 transparently, with no problem at all.

And the 200 files you got from Apple iTunes? What non iPod players do they play on?

Send me one to play on my Linux system, running Amarok.

35 posted on 10/24/2006 8:48:50 PM PDT by AFreeBird (If American "cowboy diplomacy" did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.)
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To: mamelukesabre

You are definitely correct on that. But, we aren't a big cellphone/phone family. She mostly wanted the ability to listen to music when we would go out for drives and her brother and I are listening to politics on the radio.

But, the difference in functions vs price and the unbelievable poor quality of the iPods we experienced moved us away from the iPod column.


36 posted on 10/24/2006 8:49:34 PM PDT by ican'tbelieveit (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team# 36120), KW:Folding)
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To: Toby06

Why?
'Coz iplod makes you register their pod, then load thier software.

Then you gotta put in CD into the drive, then import into the iprunes library.

Then move the music within your library into your pod.

Other players you put in the CD into the drive & move it into your player, bypassing the import to PC library step.


37 posted on 10/24/2006 8:51:27 PM PDT by vidbizz
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin

Why buy Ipod?

Creative makes a much better player and it plays everything, and you don't have to buy into the itunes scam.


38 posted on 10/24/2006 8:51:32 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser (Say what you will about America. 13 bucks still gets you a hell of a lot of mice.)
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To: Central Scrutiniser

YES,YES!!!!

Finally someones agrees!!!!


39 posted on 10/24/2006 8:53:30 PM PDT by vidbizz
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To: Toby06

I don't know why you are having this problem. You do know that yiou have to match the iPod to the parent computer's opertaing system. An iPod set up to work with a Mac won't work with Windows, and vice versa.

But, if those MP3s you are referring to area plain vanilla MP3s, you should be able to load them on the iPod with no difficulty whatsoever.

If, on the other hand the songs have been protected with some sort of digital rights protection from wherever you got them that is not compatible with Allpe's DRM scheme, you will have to strip away the protection first. This is not Apple's issue, it is an issue of mutually exclusive DRM schemes in use not only by Apple, but by others as well, to discourage song sharing.

As a matter of principle, I strip all DRM code (if any exists) before loading the song into my system. Makes things simpler.


40 posted on 10/24/2006 8:54:13 PM PDT by John Valentine
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