Napster Has Been Cracked

Sabathius writes "Users have found a way to skirt copy protection on Napster Inc's portable music subscription service just days after its high-profile launch, potentially letting them make CDs with hundreds of thousands of songs for free...""

Comments

Man...

[Curtman]

Never saw that one coming.

Re:Man...

[yogikoudou]

Well I guess they were using SHA-1 ...

Copied Music

[JohnHegarty]

Oh No...

Now the name Napster will be tried to illegally copied music... and after all the paid of the good number of that company...

Re:Copied Music

[binarybum]

I think what he meant to say was, "all of your base belong to us"

Free?

[danormsby]

I thought all music downloaded from the internet was free?

That Napster business plan in full

[Deep Fried Geekboy]

1. Launch DRM'd subscription-based music service. Nobody joins it but RIAA backs your model and you get lots of good music.
2. Wait for DRM to be cracked, in, ooh, three or four days.
3. Your subscriptions suddenly rocket
4. PROFIT!

Re:Damn...must not be very high quality songs...

[avgjoe62]

Seriously, though, who didn't see this coming?

Uhm... Napster?

So much for the business model...

Re:Whatever

[Curtman]

so long as you're playing via /dev/dsp you can always grab the digital signal

Quiet you. If my next soundblaster comes with some new fangled Macrovision, it'll be your fault.

Or would that be Macroaudio?

Well, its come full circle.

[GatesGhost]

napster just keeps finding a way to provide free music. lol. talk about irony.

Broadcast flag has been cracked

[RandoX]

Apparently, users have been sitting in front of their TV with a camcorder...

Napster v.s. iTunes

[thenextpresident]

Hehe
iTunes: $0.99 per song.
Napster: 14 day free trial: All the songs you can download and copy to MP3.

Hrm... =)

Re:Old News

[Anonymous Coward]

If you let users actually hear (music) or see (movies/tv) the content, there will always be a way to get it.

Not if you build the copy protection into the user...

And Apple...

[gmajor]

Steve Jobs reportedly e-mailed record company executives a link to a blog detailing the hack. He apparently wants to paint Napster as an insecure service, no different from its original form all the while portraying iTunes as secure (PlayFair anyone?)

Ruthless business tactics IMHO, dare I say reminiscent of the Redmond giant. I wish he'd let consumers decide which service is better rather than try to sabatoge Napster with his industry connections and FUD.

(Disclaimer: Heard this as a rumor - I wasn't exactly CCed on Steve's e-mail - but I had no reason to disbelieve the source).

Hey, what do you expect...

[skids]

Before you criticise the craftwork, consider the medium.

You don't expect a pile of burning tires to be stacked neatly, do you? That's about the same as expecting coherence and grammar in a slashdot post.

I saw it coming!

[ImaLamer]

I was going to submit this story with the headline:

Napster is Back!

Press Release

[SomeOtherGuy]

I have just cracked LP copy protection. I have plugged my record player into the line in button on my sound card, dropped the needle and clicked "record". This is a banner day. Hail to me. I am off to crack my camcorder next.

Re:it's good enough

[redJag]

for audiophiles and perfectionists ....

Turns out they don't care since they'd never purchase that low quality of music in the first place eh? :)

Re:Damn...must not be very high quality songs...

[untaken_name]

"CDs" it is plural

It's always nice when someone doesn't get the joke. It's even better when they reply with broken English. It's best when they're trying to correct me using broken English while missing the joke. Thank you, sincerely.

Napster was right

[EvilStein]

Now it really IS cheaper than iTunes. :)