Windows Program Enables MP3 Downloading From iTunes

Joey Patterson writes "CNET reports that an independent software developer has released a program called MyTunes that allows people to share and download each other's MP3s on a network via iTunes." This is very much like a Mac program I saw a while back called itunesdl, which allowed one to download MP3s from friends who were sharing their playlists, exactly as MyTunes claims to do.

Comments

Won't work with music from Apple Store

[da_anarchist]

This will work just fine with MP3's, but won't work with Apple's DRM'ed files. For those, you need to actually authorize the computer so it can play the AAC file.

Open Source, Email communication

[Caharin]

Mr. Zeller,

I recently was referred to your web page about your program MyTunes.
Your program sounds most excellent, however I note that it is only
available for windows. The internet community would most definitely be
pleased if you were to make this project open source. Since you are
charging nothing, you will only gain from this change.
As open source software, it can be ported by other people, to mac OS X
for example. Development would allow for greater stability, more
features. Also, I believe sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/) will
host such a page for free.

--his reply--

Hi,

I absolutely support open source software and have been active in the
community (see www.zempt.com).

The reason this version was not open source had more to do with the time it
would have taken to choose the correct license as well as getting all the
files together, registering for sourceforge, etc.

I'll hopefully be able to make it open source soon.

Best Regards,
Bill Zeller

Re:Misleading Headline

[Caharin]

Rendezvous Proxy will take care of this for you. Use the two products together, problem solved. Easy as cake. I have used Rendezvous Proxy and it does work.

Re:Misleading Headline

[single_user_mode]

come on! nowhere does it mention the Internet in the headline! you assumed as such and when, god forbid, you had to actually read the article to find out what the post was about it was not as you anticipated... so, should /. start dragging the rest of the story into the headline just so you will not be disappointed?

besides its a start, i am sure others will build on it, hey maybe you could contribute! & b4 you know it, the sharing of across LAN and Internet will be possible.

whiner!

You could do this before, even on windows or linux

[RalphBNumbers]

In addition to iTunesDL, mentioned in the article for mac, there's iSlurp which does basically the same thing in platform independent java. and has been out for six months.

But now we have a bunch of hype and publicity.
So the Record companies are probably going to give apple shit and force more limitations down our throats, just like when Apple had to limit iTunes to sharing on the local network only.

Good job people.

Re:Bad and good

[Lightwarrior]

I'm certainly not. What constitutes sharing? Playing it for myself alone, but loud enough for the neighbors to hear? Playing it in the car when my friends are listening? Playing it for a room full of people? Playing it for an auditorium full of people?

Is it my fault if some guy is making a recording without my knowledge?

What if my computer gets hacked, and my legitimate digital backups are compromised? What if my backup CDs are stolen, but not my original copies? What if I still have the backups if the originals are stolen?

Can I buy "used" CDs? What about purchasing a "mix" CD? A recording of a concert? Can I sell my "used" CDs? The copies if I destroy the originals? The digital copies if I destroy the originals?

-lw

Re:Misleading Headline

[laird]

iTunes doesn't really stream the music in the sense of a bit-rate limited version trickle delivered. It's more like QuickTime's auto-start download, where the full quality file is downloaded and played, only it's never written to disk. But if you capture and save the file, it's identical to the source file, in the same format, with the same DRM, etc.

This is different from operating a streaming server, where any sound to be broadcast is squished into a single continuous audio stream, at the desired bitrate and stream format. So, for example, I can run Nicecast (great app!) and it'll take whatever sounds play on my Mac, convert it to an icecast stream at 56K bps (or whatever I tell it), and stream it out. So if I play Protected AAC's, or WAV's, or movies, etc., it all ends up in one long stream, no files, no metadata.

Re:You could do this before, even on windows or li

[self assembled struc]

of course, if you'd read the iSlurp page you'd see that it no longer works with anything post 4.0

LIke 4.0.1 where Apple started doing key passing and he doesn't want to violate the DMCA.

So, you really can't use iSlurp unless you use old copies of iTunes.

Re:Misleading Headline

[christopherfinke]

Apparently, MyTunes grabs the actual file somehow, which may or may not involve streaming in the usual "normal speed playback" sense.

I just downloaded MyTunes and tried it on the LAN in my dorm. Once you start a song in iTunes, it is added to a list in MyTunes of songs that you can copy. Choosing to copy a song takes mere seconds, and, as far as I can tell, it is a perfect copy: all ID3 data is retained, the size of the files is the same, etc.