Hacker breaks link between iTunes and the iPod

Times of London ^ | 02/20/08 | Jonathan Richards

[TigerLikesRooster]

February 20, 2008

Hacker breaks link between iTunes and the iPod

Software letting iTunes users copy music and video to mobile phones has been released by the hacker known as DVD Jon

Jonathan Richards

A notorious Norwegian hacker known as DVD Jon is preparing for another run-in with the music industry after he released software that lets iPod owners copy music and videos bought from iTunes and play it on other devices.

The program allows people to drag and drop songs from iTunes into a folder on their desktop, which in turn copies the files to other devices such as mobile phones and games consoles via the web.

In doing so, the software breaks the copy protection - known as 'digital rights management' or DRM - that is built into all music that is bought from iTunes. Music bought from iTunes can be played only on the iPod.

DoubleTwist, DVD Jon's company, maintains that its service is legal, but lawyers said that Apple would almost certainly seek to shut it down because the law now specifically targeted technologies which attempted to circumvent measures such as DRM.

The hacker has previously enabled iPod owners to play music bought from websites other than iTunes.

DoubleTwist's new software will initially enable files to be copied to Nokia N-series mobile phones, Sony Ericsson's Walkman and Cybershot handsets, as well as any smartphone powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system.

The program gets around Apple's DRM software by replaying a song in fast-forward and taking a copy of the audio track, using a process similar to that by which a CD is 'ripped' - or copied - to a computer.

About a hundred songs can be converted in half an hour, doubleTwist said, although there is a 5 per cent loss of sound quality - about the same as when a CD is copied.

A spokesman for the San Fransisco-based company said that its software was legal, because it only allowed a user who has already purchased music to copy it. "All we are facilitating are friends sending things to one another," Monique Farantzos, doubleTwists's chief executive and co-founder, told Reuters.

Lawyers today cast doubt on Ms Farantzos's claims, however, saying that the law had taken steps to protect Apple's efforts to control the way its music could be played, and that anyone circumventing measures such as DRM risked being found guilty of copyright infringement.

"I would be astonished if doubleTwist doesn't get a call from Apple," Paul Jones, a partner in intellectual property law at the London-based firm Harbottle & Lewis, said.

DVD Jon, whose real name is Jon Lech Johansen, has been an arch-enemy of the music and film indutries ever since he released software which broke the copy protection on Hollywood films, aged 16.

In 2003, Mr Johansen, now 24, developed the first of several programs which attempted to bypass the system developed by Apple for synchronising its iTunes store with iPods, leading to one of a series of run-ins with the firm.

[avg_freeper]

Is this “l33t” hacker the last person on the face of the earth to figure out how to do this?

[Izzy Dunne]

there is a 5 per cent loss of sound quality - about the same as when a CD is copied.

After reading this, all else about the article is suspect.

[Mr. K]

This isn’t as hard as they make it sound, and he is no evil genious.

It is just time consuming, and those of us with jobs and children don’t have the time to hack into things.

[TommyDale]

This is hilarious.

[Izzy Dunne]

Music bought from iTunes can be played only on the iPod.

Seeing as how I'm listening to a CD made from iTunes music, I'd say this is BS, too.

[mnehring]

LOL, my thoughts exactly. All you need to do is write a macro that copies the songs to a virtual cd, then re-uploads those into Windows media, thus changing the format from aa3.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Is this “l33t” hacker the last person on the face of the earth to figure out how to do this?

If you've ever used a piece of software that made use of DeDRMS to rid your iTunes purchase of DRM, allowing for conversion to other formats, you've used Jon's code.

[martin_fierro]

he is no evil genious.

 

[avg_freeper]

"If you've ever used a piece of software that made use of DeDRMS to rid your iTunes purchase of DRM, allowing for conversion to other formats, you've used Jon's code."

I never needed to do any of that to remove DRM.

Step one: burn music to a CD.

Step two: there is no step two.

[College Repub]

Itunes lets you burn to CD. The tracks you burn still have DRM on them. What this new software does is remove away the DRM.

[Raymann]

Agreed, I have so much space on my mp3 player that if I’m going to rip a CD I don’t see a reason to do it in a lossy format.

And the whole freakin’ point behind digital media is that copies are exact.

[Izzy Dunne]

Horse puckey. You can burn a plain audio CD, which, by definition, has no DRM.

[TalonDJ]

There are already like a zillion apps out there that do this. So what.

[Alex Murphy]

The program gets around Apple's DRM software by replaying a song in fast-forward and taking a copy of the audio track, using a process similar to that by which a CD is 'ripped' - or copied - to a computer.

Sneaky!

[Rick.Donaldson]

hehehehehehehehe

[AnotherUnixGeek]

There are already like a zillion apps out there that do this. So what.

The point of this one is that it's an easy-to-use, all-in-one application for DRM removal. Most iTunes customers have never put their purchased music on their Sony PSP or non-iPhone mobile phone, or put a purchased WMA file on their iPod - finding and using the tools that do this is non-trivial for non-geeks. This app intends to make it trivial for everyone. It also includes a Facebook app which allows Facebook users to strip DRM from videos and share them with their Facebook friends.

I expect this thing will be dragged into court immediately for violating the DMCA. It'll still be valuable if it gets more people to take a look at the DMCA and it's prohibitions on what we do with the stuff we buy.

[indcons]

Bookmark

[HKMk23]

Get it here:
http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Download/Index.dt

[College Repub]

I was referring to the underlying tracks still having DRM. Why burn your whole collection to CD just to be able to move things around to your various media devices?