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iTunes 4.6, DRM, and Hymn
fluffy writes "Although the recent iTunes 4.6 upgrade refuses to play music decrypted with Hymn, there's already a trivially-simple workaround, demonstrated within hours of the iTunes release, which still preserves the 'fair use' intent of the tool. What move will Apple take against Hymn next?"
Or perhaps they simply don't want overmuch trouble from labels. Fair use doesn't enter into Hymn, because the problem is not one of copyright. The issue MIGHT involve patents (if any exist). But more likely they're trying to enforce contracts -- the iTunes license agremeent forbids stuff like that.
Downloaded tracks from iTunes are DRM'ed so that only the user who bought them can play them. Hymn is designed to get rid of the DRM, so that (for example) you can play your files on a Linux machine. However, it leaves in your user ID so to prevent piracy by making files easily traced.
The latest version of iTunes refuses to play files that contain a user ID but no DRM - even if the user ID is your own. Hence, a fix is needed.
What you're describing is transcoding via recompression, and causes more loss. Hymn strips the DRM while leaving an unencrypted AAC without loss of (any more) audio information.
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
go back to an article from several months ago: apple makes little-to-no money whatsoever on iTMS. 99c is literally cutthroat pricing from their pov. sure, they take maybe 5-10c per song sold, but it disappears quickly toward financing the operating costs of iTMS and such.
Man, you're a whiner.
No hotkey support regardless of focus. I want to change songs while coding without switching to iTunes, damnit (and no thanks, I don't need any 3rd party mini-app)
Use the Dock.
Location of iTunes library file not changeable (and in users' homedir).
Mine is on a server. Try LOOKING at the preferences.
No watching of the library folders.
Try LOOKING at the menu bar. It's called Consolidate Library...
Yeah, it's not automatic, but it is a one step process.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Location of iTunes library file not changeable (and in users' homedir). WTF?
My iTunes library is not in my home directory. It's not even on the same drive.
SteveM
find ~/Music/iTunes -name "*.m4p" -exec ~/PlayFix {} \;
Oops. Correction: Replace "*.m4p" with "*.m4a" instead. D'oh!
The symlink is easier, really, and it will take care of both the music files and the library database.
/Users/Shared/iTunes ~/Music/iTunes
ln -s
The database is in the top directory, and the subdirectory iTumes Music contains the audio files.
For the bit about copying files to the location and iTunes automatically adding them to the library:
If you are on a Mac, look at AppleScript Folder Actions. It does take a little work on your part, but you could set up a folder (or alias) on your desktop which would, when you add files to it, run an AppleScript adding those files to your iTunes library. I would be surprised if this script did not already exist somewhere -- if it does, all you do is attach it to a folder.
Also, I think you can drag files to the iTunes icon on the Dock and accomplish the same thing.
I'm curious where you see that Apple is 'clearly' not giving back. Looking at CVS for Konqueror, and quite a few FreeBSD tools, and you see Apple making their mark. Not to mention Apple's Public Source site where /all/ of Darwin is there, Streaming software tools, ZeroConf changes, and more are open to the public.
Clear as mud, yo.
- oZ
// i am here.
Bullshit. That's the location of the audio files, not of the database.
It took me all of 10 seconds to make an alias (File-> Make Alias) change the name from iTunes Music Library Alias to iTunes Music Library and copy the file to all my users home directories. And then, not only did I move my Library file out of my user folder, I moved it off my harddisk and on to a USB keychain. And it worked. How amazing is that?
Bullshit, that's copying all the files already in the library to a central location. I want to copy files to that location and iTunes to notice them (=adding them to the library DB).
So you want iTunes to take files that it isn't aware of, copy them to a different directory and then become aware of the files? Doesn't that sound slightly contrdictory to you? Or do you mean you want it to copy files to the library folder as you add them? IN which case I suggest you check the options again.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
If you do it, you will be sorry. sed will mangle binaries.
$ md5 < song.m4p
e7e226f8bb2bd10ea4543abf879fc525
$ sed < song.m4p | md5
ec6849772458b78180fd8f8a434a2889
My problem with iTunes is that it is not graceful at handling large song libraries.
15,343 tracks here, and no problems at all. And that's on a G3 iMac running at 400 MHz.
I access the same library from my dual GHz G4 upstairs. No problems there either. In fact, apart from encoding speed, I can't tell the difference between the two machines as far as iTunes is concerned.
I write in my journal
Control-click (or right-click) on the iTunes Dock icon. You can control iTunes through the menu that pops up, no matter if iTunes is in the background or the foreground.
If you zoom the main iTunes window to its smaller size you are able to control the small window without changing focus. Just zoom the window (press the small green button in the tope left corner of the window) and drag the small window to a corner where it won't be obscured by a document. You can even make the zoomed window smaller by dragging the resize area at the bottom right corner of the window. Then you can just click on any of the controls in that window to change iTunes without changing focus away from what you are working on.
Go to this web page, download this file. Unstuff the file, take the "Add to iTunes Library" droplet out of the "Desktop Droplet" folder and put it on the desktop. Then just drag new music to that droplet and it will automatically be added to your library.
One thing, this script is a little bit outdated - it isn't set up to accept AAC files. This is easy to fix, just tell it to do so! Drag the droplet onto the Script Editor application found in the Applications folder. Change this line (line 8):to this:Save it and you are all set.
It is trivial to change this script into a Folder Actions so that you can have a "watched folder" if you want that.
Sapere aude!
This is supposedly fixed in the 4.6 Release
Blockquoth the parent:
Yes, it is. In fact, I checked that same page before posting, just to make sure I remembered the term correctly.
NatasRevol's original post was a straw man argument because it distorted the reality of Apple's periodic iTunes updates in order to argue that they're implementing ever more restrictive DRM. That's just not true. They're updating iTunes in order to reinforce the existing DRM, which is being willfully violated by the users of Hymn.
You are presuming the worst without the historical evidence to justify it. Apple has repeatedly demonstrated that they prefer technological solutions to legal problems (certain "look-and-feel" litigation notwithstanding). If someone cracks the DRM, they patch it. 'Nuf said.
The one time they've genuinely changed the terms of the DRM, it was more expansive (increase from three to five machines allowed) than restrictive (burn same playlist seven times instead of ten), so... *shrug*