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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.
If you read Slashdot regularly, you will find an abundance of published stories that seek to push hardware and software beyond their normal limits, thereby allowing greater freedom and possibly skirting the law at the same time.
In this case, I was led to believe that I could use MyTunes to download from computers across the Internet, when in fact it is designed strictly for those who listen to Mp3s across a LAN--like a dedicated music server, for instance. It is not intended to enable sharing of MP3s across the global internet (even though it, too, is a "network").
Thanks Slashdot!
Homestarrunner.net -- It's Dot Com!
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.
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
By reading this sig, you agree to be bound by all terms and conditions I choose.
From the bottom of the site:
And remember, copyright infringement is illegal. If you have any question whether what you're doing constitutes an infringement,
visit the RIAA's great anti-piracy website.
Kissing asses here, scared allready or just kidding?
DRM = protection of the music files.
But the player then decodes the audio stream and then plays it through sound card.
Most sound cards have line out.
DRM *will not* work for audio in this way.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
This doesn't seem quite sound...this guy will get shut down. Hell, his own website contradicts him. He says this:
Tunes is mainly meant to be used as a music manager and means of purchasing music online. However, in addition to purchasing music, one can listen to any of the music shared by others on a network. So, for example, if another person on your network has iTunes and decides to share their music, you can listen to it. iTunes does not allow you to save this music to your hard drive. MyTunes lifts this restriction by allowing you to save music from other computers to your hard drive.
Then he says, down at the bottom, something of a "disclaimer" which, although I am not a legal specialist, does not sound like it has any legitimacy:
If you plan on stealing music, do not download this software. If you plan on infringing upon copyrights, do not download this software. Only download this software if you plan on acting responsibly. Warranty: There is absolutely no warranty of any kind whatsoever with this software. The software is provided to you "AS-IS", and all risks and losses associated with its use are assumed by you. In no event shall the author of this software, Bill Zeller, be held accountable for any damages or losses that may occur from use or misuse of the software. Use at your own risk. And remember, copyright infringement is illegal. If you have any question whether what you're doing constitutes an infringement, visit the RIAA's great anti-piracy website.
He also links to Apple's iTunes website, which has to have some sort of legal implications, seeing as this is a program which can (potentially) be used in malignant ways.
It'll be interesting to see if Apple tries to do an "over-the-internet auto update" like Microsoft does with its patches, for this, or if they try to guise a fix for this as a "feature upgrade". If they do, they better have some new features. This is exactly what iTunes update to 4.0.1 did for Mac users, when it was discovered people could share music with other exact IP addresses.
I think you're confusing butt-kissing with nose-thumbing.
I've been using it this week and like it quite a bit. My company has about 8 iTunes users on my local subnet and I have been "borrowing" all week long. It isn't exactly feature rich and you must start playing a song to make it available for download. Otherwise, it's nifty!
this sig deleted by another sig
As far as I know you can already share a folder (read only) and allow anyone on a network to copy the music and you can already stream music through iTunes to anyone on a network. The only question would be if is these things are sufficiently harder on a Windows machine to require a special program?
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
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.
"The worst tyrannies were the ones where a governance required its own logic on every embedded node." - Vernor Vinge
All this thing does is copy the stream that is coming across Rendezvous. That stream is limited at 64 kbps. Even if you were streaming non-protected AAC files, this is a pretty power quality copy, similar to copying a CD to a tape.
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
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
Great. Pretty soon Apple will disable this option and I will not be able to use iTunes simple zero-conf mp3 sharing. I loved opening my iTunes from another computer and listen to my songs. The loser: Me.
In the meanwhile all the kiddies will keep using Kazaa to get their songs.
I like when the RIAA says this:
Plus, good luck returning a pirated tape or CD when the quality is inferior or the product is defective, as it often is.
I think it should actually read:
Plus, good luck returning a legal tape or CD when the CD doesn't conform to CD standards or play on your CD player, as it often is.
"Say hello to Apple Legal."
Should it not be called HisOrHerTunes instead of MyTunes? After all, if downloaded from someone else, they aren't mine as in MyTunes. Even better, the software could probably be called, WeDon'tKnowWhoLegallyObtainTheseFirstTunes.
Later,
-Slashdot Junky
.
Landfill Mining Co.
Managing the (Un)natural Resources of Tomorrow
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.
An official bittorrent file of MyTunes can be downloaded here:
t
http://www.drunkenaardvark.com/MyTunes.exe.torren
MyTunes going open source is actually a bad move in this case. Hacks & a more broad functionality for MyTunes will likely be accelerated by going open source. While another app or two is required to get full-fledged Kazaa-like sharing over the internet currently, this would be quickly integrated into an open source MyTunes. OSS development would probably keep ahead of any desperate attempts by Apple engineers to restrict illegal file-sharing by iTunes users, including AAC files.
What would be the result of this? Major labels terminating their license agreements with Apple to sell music via iTMS, certainly. iTunes subsequently waning in utility & popularity as other players catch up with iTunes while still offering secure online music purchases (these also eventually fall prey to their own myTunes if they get popular enough). Either Apple and others exit market leaving us where we started before all this, or hardware-enforced DRM (such as Palladium) gets a further boost from this obvious example of the dangers of lax DRM.
Good job! Net result will be a worse future than present. Yeah, yeah, OSS = Good; Proprietary = Evil, etc etc. In the practical world we live in, open source may actually hurt the market & consumer choice in this case.
Well, that page is talking about TotalRecorder. It's available here: http://www.highcriteria.com/
It's only $12, so it's not like he's charging a lot for it. It does have some nifty features. First, yeah, it sticks a driver in so that it can capture sound data directly. But it's got some other coolness to it, actually.
-The 30 second auto-buffer lets you hit record after the song has started and still get the song.
-Choose your own format, of course. But it can send the data to an encoder too (Ogg, LAME, whatever) before saving it off to disc.
-Detection of the beginning and ends of sound being played so as to trim the silences and save into separate files automagically if you so choose (works surprisingly well).
-Suppress system beeps and such while it's recording, so you don't get those in the resulting file.
-Timer based recording so that you can have it record a daily radio show or something similar.
And some other nifty stuff. It's rather well thought out, actually. It's worth the $12 if you want to convert virtually any DRMed format to something a little less protected. But it's worth the $12 not because it simply saves the stuff to disc like some free drivers might be capable of doing, but because it's a good program overall with some good effort put into it.
Oh, it works with iTunes too. Just change QuickTime's playback settings to "Playback through TotalRecorder" and it works just fine.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.