Slashdot Mirror

/CF

I also posted the same text here -> http://hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17387#17387

The original thread is here: http://hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2496

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QTFairUse http://hymn-project.org/download.php Looks like they got a DMCA "cease and desist order", whatever that means.

Already done.

Try MyFairTunes. It will let you strip the DRM out of your itunes library without a loss in quality. From the hymn-project.org website on why to use their software: "To demonstrate your belief in the principles of fair-use under copyright law." Beautiful.

Oops... I guess i should put a link for those who haven't heard of it:

QTFairUse download & discussion

Are there still people that don't know about QTFairUse? All informed people by now buy only "Plus" songs or stick to CDs. I've got a co-worker that got heavily burned by DRM, and I explained him what to do in order to avoid lock in. The Zune plays AAC, by the way. Just not protected AAC.

Find a Windows machine, install iTunes, import DRMed music fines, let Hymn/QTFairuse do its work. Congratulations, you now have unprotected AAC files. (I checked, QTFairuse at this point works with iTunes up and including version 7.4.3.1).

You could do all of this from within a virtual machine.

Oh, and after you did all this, buy non-DRM content only. That's what I did after DRM started to thoroughly piss me off.

You can also rerip. It's a crappy solution to get it onto a non-iPod player, but it's possible. Do other solutions offer this?

Yes, on an iTunes Plus song, right-click in iTunes and select "Convert to MP3". Done.... Also works if you accidentally ripped to AAC instead of MP3.

Oh, and Psssst

Ok, here's my take on it:

My iPod has no identification markings... if I lose it, I write it off as a loss. It's an expensive habit, but I'm more paranoid than most. The only pictures I have on it are inside a knoppix encrypted disk. This is breakable with enough time (it's only AES-128) but I am comfortable that anyone stealing my iPod either doesn't have the knowledge/power to do this, or is already onto me for whatever I've done and I'm screwed anyway... so all you can see on my iPod at this point is an encrypted image file, and all my music. My music has all my info pushed into it and I have to expend a significant effort to strip this information out (not really a problem for me, because I consider it a good use of time for the sake of that extra level of security), whereas something transparently doing it for me makes it a LOT easier to acheive this level of privacy. Something like jhymn is quite useful, but its one step more than will potentially be needed by the end-user.

I don't advocate piracy of any kind, namely because anyone pirating my software is preventing me from getting paid that little bit extra (and it *is* only a little bit), but its not just piracy that is causing the DRM removal trend.

I'd imagine it'd be possible for Apple or other music stores to release a tool to remove the DRM, maybe a sort of an officially sanctioned version of hymn.
http://hymn-project.org/

This covers up to iTunes 7 or so...
http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/04/04/29/1554231.s html?tid=107&tid=141&tid=187&tid=188
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=316 65
http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/29/hymn-is-back-fa irplay-on-itunes-6-finally-cracked/
http://hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=155 3

Wanna find a multitude of unencrypted AAC files? http://thepiratebay.org/search.php?q=AAC&audio=on

Please cite that FairPlay has been not been cracked and illicit copies are NOT ABUNDANT. Otherwise, I assert teh laws of teh internets. (anything that can be copied, will be, and en masse.)

My only complaint with the apple drm is the quality. I like everything to be 192+ as I can hear the difference in anything under 192.

That being said, I buy some music from the itunes store and immediately rip it back to mp3 with myfairtunes -> ( http://hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=155 5 ) it's 100% of the quality of the original file just shy the drm ... unfortunately the quality of the original file isn't great *shrug*. It works with the most recent versions of itunes too.

So as disk-based DRM is consistently wrecked, but can't be updated until the next hardware cycle (~7-8 years at least), which alternative becomes obvious?

Software based DRM via network downloads. You can update the DRM-ed player in the next software patch, automated via Internet distribution. Apple is covered with their iTunes store, and Microsoft has been working frantically on heavy DRM in Vista and WMP.

What makes you think computer software based DRM is unbreakable? All DRM is software based, be it firmware in a component system player in someones living room or an OS with a video app running on their computer. For example, BOTH of the on-line download solutions you mention have ALREADY been broken:

How to strip iTunes DRM and How to strip WMP DRM

ALL DRM IS FLAWED!! Eventually the dumb ass music and movie studio execs will figure this out and will stop pissing off their customers with this bullshit!! Because the bottom line is those of us who are smart enough to copy content ALWAYS WILL be able to, so why punish legit end users because of that? DRM is a waste of time and money for content providers. These people would make more money if they just focused on creating good content and doing a good job of promoting it, and stopped wasting revenue by investing in DRM technology research. All DRM does is raise the cost of distributing content while doing nothing to stop pirating, it's a waste and a loss for the content providers and a constant annoyance for consumers...

I used QTFairuse6 a couple of weeks ago on iTunes 7 and it seemed to work (I deauthorized my computer and successfully played the songs).

Wow... you sound really authoritative, but it seems like you really don't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, I remember loving JHymn about 2 years ago.. I've heard of myFairTunes as well as others for stripping the DRM from iTunes music. If I buy it, I should be able to put it on whatever I want.

Hence why I don't buy songs from iTunes anymore. Or Sony.

Yeah, I remember loving JHymn about 2 years ago.. I've heard of myFairTunes as well as others for stripping the DRM from iTunes music. If I buy it, I should be able to put it on whatever I want.

Hence why I don't buy songs from iTunes anymore. Or Sony.

There is a better way, by which you avoid the loss in quality caused by the decompression->compression process (however slight it may be): http://hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=155 3

...and you'll save that cd for something useful instead (pr0n?)

Why not use Hymn to move all your AACs to non-DRM'd MP3s?

> In fact, it can play any of the AAC files in my iTunes library except the few I bought from iTMS. To me, this is an unacceptable restriction. I bought the music, but I can't play it on a device I own because of artificial restrictions.
Use QTFairUse6.

It is still looped through the sound card, so while quality may still be "excellent", there is still loss. I would rather use a program such as QTFairUse which doesn't lose any sound quality.

Just get jHymn to strip the copy protection of your downloaded tracks, then convert them to whatever format you wish:
http://hymn-project.org/jhymndoc/

There is even a previous slashdot article...

than to curse the darkness. Here's your candle.

iTunes wasn't cracked. Fairplay DRM was cracked.

And it wasn't even that. According to this forum entry, all the hack does is tie into the audio "output" side of iTunes and skim off the decoded AAC stream, writing it to a file. One step above grabbing it at the sound card, but certainly not a crack of the DRM itself.

What's astounding is how many people seem to consider this "a step in the right direction," when it's really a "step in a totally different direction that will do nothing for actually breaking the DRM itself." Then again, maybe I shouldn't be *too* surprised.... :(

Here you go: http://hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=155 3

Any why won't you provide a link to the software?

They won't, but I will: http://hymn-project.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=155 3

What will happen when Apple goes bankrupt? Or when the next generation of mini-players comes out with a new DRM?

You must be thinking of the OTHER music companies, that re-authorize every month or what have you.

If Apple went out of buisiness, you music would continue to play on your current Mac until the end of time.

However, like you say eventually you'd want to move the music. Two options then:

CD's - I can burn any ITMS song to CD as much as I like (limit of ten burns a playlist, but I can always make new playlists...)

Hymn - I can convert protected AAC files into unprotected AAC files, which I can then play on anything that undrestands AAC (most PC players, not many portables) or convert it from there.

So yeah I feel sorry for anyone buying music from anywhere other than ITMS or AllOfMP3.com. I still don't like to use AllOfMP3 though as I don't feel it gives artists as much as it should. Perhaps in the future I'll buy from ITMS, then buy the non-lossy version from AllOfMP3. Too much work though, so I probably wont...

Since we're on the topic of DRM, somebody get around to cracking ITMS 6.0 FairPlay, i want to use Hymn to Fair-Use my music again!

What would interest me more is how they would put bittorrent to use with DRM?

It might work the same way, iTunes does: distribute the files without DRM and add the DRM in the client. The was even a story on slashdot about this. Quote:

Jon Johansen ("DVD Jon") has published a small program which allows the acquisition of DRM-free file from Apple's iTunes Music Store. He explains that his program works by bypassing iTunes which adds the DRM itself at the end of the transfer. His program, pymusique, is Windows-only compliant but it'd be easy to port it to other platforms."

This method has some advantages for apple, mainly the cheap distribution costs about inverese web proxies. But there is also a big disadvantage: in principle everyone can just grab the music and skip the DRM-step in the client. Apple's responded to this thread by obfuscating the protocol. Until now, this scheme seems to work at least for JHmyn, a program that removes DRM after the ITunes client has added it. Quote:

It appears that if you make any purchases using iTunes 6.0 (or, even without making any purchases use iTunes 6.0 for other Music Store activity which authorizes against your account, such as authorizing a new computer to play your music), from that point on you must use 6.0 -- and then JHymn won't work for you either. JHymn will have to learn how to perform the iTunes 6.0 protocol before this problem is likely to be fixed -- so hang on, it could be a bit of a wait.

Unlike DRM systems using hardware support, adding the DRM in the client is not a perfect solution. But with an obfuscated protocol it seems to be good enough -- and in the end DRM is always about obfuscation. BitTorrent (the protocol) fits very well in this scheme, because it helps to minimize distribution costs. In some distant future one could even use Palladium/TCPA/NGSCB/... to ensure that only certified clients can participate on the swarm. Of course, certified clients would always add the DRM. And of course the client can add any kind of DRM, be it FairPlay or some subscription service like Napster or anything else. So the media industrie gets both: DRMed music and movies and the clients pay for distribution. Nice.

Microsoft will also allow you to download from its store any song that you've purchased from Apple, unlocking users from iPod's vendor lock-in.

I have something that does this already. It's called JHymn.

It's also possible to strip the DRM from the iTunes AAC files with JHymn. However, there aren't many players that play AAC files, so even without the DRM, you're pretty much SOL

Of course, mentioning this product violates the DMCA, which violates my right to free speech, but I'm posting anonymously anyway.

There is a way to unencrypt songs that you've bought actually:

http://hymn-project.org/

If DRM doesn't sort itself out the same way, it probably means that it's probably not all that bad for the honest folks. I know Apple's DRM has never annoyed me at all when I'm trying to do legal listening to my music.

Obviously you've never tried to listen to iTMS tracks with anything other than Apple products. Apple updated iTunes to version 6, and in the process made it impossible to convert M4P files short of burning to CD and ripping again, which 1) is a PITA for any even moderately sized collection, and 2) causes further degradation of the audio quality. Yes, I'm annoyed. This means I can't listen to my own music that I've already bought and paid for on anything but what Apple wants me to use. This is so far beyond reasonable that it makes me right royally cheesed off.

Incidentally, if anyone knows of some other means of turning M4P into MP3 or OGG besides JHymn, by all means let me know. JHymn has so far tried to play it honourably, using Apple's own license data to unlock the DRM, but the upgrade to ver 6 has rendered JHymn dead in the water. This is exactly this kind of idiocy by the powers that be that push regular folk towards piracy. Dammit, I already paid for it, don't you dare have the gall to try to tell me what to do with it now. Copyright, fine, but if I want to play a music file using someone else's player, I should be able to. Copyright is now being "extended" into a catch-all legal excuse for monopolies, and Orwell and Rand are looking more and more prescient as time passes. I long for the days gone by when they looked merely paranoid.

I refer you to the hymn project.

site here:
http://www.hymn-project.org/

it has been cracked, and has been cracked since about 3 years ago. At this point it has been refined to the point people can use spoofing programs to buy from the itunes store without ever having to touch itunes as a program at all and never have DRM encumber the files in the first place.

First off, get rid of the DRM with your AAC files: http://www.hymn-project.org/jhymndoc/
It'll help a _lot_, because you'd also be able to play the files without iTunes

Secondly, what software? I don't have enough fingers to count. GNUpod, amaroK, JuK, Rythmbox, GTKPod, etc

From the JHymn iTunes 6 FAQ:
"Q: Will JHymn work with music purchased with iTunes 6?
A: No. Apple changed their decryption mechanism in iTunes 6, and JHymn does not support those changes at the current time.
Q: What versions of iTunes does JHymn work with?
A: All versions through 5.0.1."

So don't upgrade when iTunes tells you to. And consider donating to DVD Jon...he'd like to crack iTunes 6.

From the JHymn iTunes 6 FAQ:
"Q: Will JHymn work with music purchased with iTunes 6?
A: No. Apple changed their decryption mechanism in iTunes 6, and JHymn does not support those changes at the current time.
Q: What versions of iTunes does JHymn work with?
A: All versions through 5.0.1."

So don't upgrade when iTunes tells you to. And consider donating to DVD Jon...he'd like to crack iTunes 6.

If it is please show me where i can find a tool to remove the drm from music purcahsed from itunes.

Here ya go. It will only work with iTunes through version 5, but that's a fairly easy restriction to deal with.

Try Hymm. There are mac and windows variants, as well as Java.

Or you can burn to CD, rip from CD, with no extra software required.

Or buy iTunes music through the Sharp Musique app, an iTunes store interface that simply skips the tawdry part where they encrypt and DRM the file.

Or use the older stuff, like QTFairUse, VLC Media Player, and PlayFair.

I believe you would be looking for the Hymn project.

And just for shits and giggles, you could use FreeMe or DRM2WMV for Windows Media 10 DRM'd files.

Trust me, cracking 11 is just a matter of time.

The rest of the world, on the other hand, might consider the quality of a purchase and the purchase price before buying. I know for me, I can generaly get albums for a few dollars cheaper on iTunes than I can buying the physical CD.

However, like the parent, I'm paranoid about losing my music. With a pre-version 6 iTunes and JHymn I can feel good about always being able to use my backups, however, it is a bit of a pain to setup and scrub every purchase I make. Also, for the average consumer, this isn't plausible.

Most people don't trust computers much. As such, even if it costs a few bucks more, most people will simply feel more secure with a physical CD in their posession.

You can strip the DRM on the iTunes music. I probably shouldn't admit to it, but this is how I listen to music under Linux. I should mention that I don't share the music after stripping the DRM and that, if there were a way to do this without stripping the DRM, I would.

I use iTunes under Windows, then JHymn (http://www.hymn-project.org/). The unencrypted files will play problem-free under Linux and can translated into MP3s without issue as well.

It plays MP3s still, right?

Well. . .if you do a little digging and find yourself an old copy of Playfair or just grab a copy of Hymn. . . it *could* play those iTMS tracks.

Using Hymn, which can decrypt legally purchased music.

It only runs on OSX and Windows, but since the same applies to iTunes, that should not pose a problem.

I believe you can backup the auido to a data disc of AACs or mp3s, however this does not remove the DRM from the files.

True, but this does.

So you still can't get the files to non-iPod audio devices

See above. I have an iPod now, but before that, I was playing iTMS downloads on a Palm Tungsten T (with AeroPlayer).

(The funny bit is that I don't think I've bought anything from iTMS since I bought my iPod. My most recent purchases were from these guys. 192-kbps AAC is nice.)

and if you hose your computer and reinstall and in the process appear to hose you iTunes account those DRM'd files on your backup cds might be worthless.

Wrong again. When you get your computer running again and iTunes installed, you authorize it and it starts playing your downloads. Even if you've used up all of your authorizations (you get five, IIRC), there's still a fix. You can free up all of your authorizations (including the one sitting on the hard drive that had a headcrash last week) and start over.

One word: JHymn.

How can you read /. and not have heard of Hymn by now?