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iTunes DRM Hole Closed
FrYGuY101 writes "As recently covered on Slashdot, there was a hole in iTunes which allowed music to be acquired from the iTunes Music Store without Apple's DRM applied. Well, Apple has just released an update which closes this exploit."
Which of course requires that everyone upgrade their itunes to version 4.7. Apparently you can still use PyMusique to preview tracks, just not buy them.
iTunes 4.7 has been out for a year now. Apple didn't "just release" anything, they just made it so their servers required you to have 4.7.
Good question. Unfortunately, Apple will require the upgrade for continued use of the iTMS.
It didn't plug a "hole". It modified things so that PyMusique won't work anymore. Like they did with Real.
Note that (per previous news stories, and probably on /. too) the update they are now forcing has more limits on what you can do with the music.
See eg. here.
Note the comments about no one being forced to upgrade... well, not any more.
As the leader of a small-time garage band, I would LOVE to have a label come along and "exploit" us with a five-year, multi-million dollar record contract, even if it meant seeing every (crappy) song I ever wrote locked down by eeeeeevil DRM layers.
What if the label's affiliated music publisher instead sent you a cease-and-desist letter, claiming that "every (crappy) song [you] ever wrote" is an infringing copy of one of its own songs? Hey, it could happen.
Napster did the same thing actually. If you remember the "winamp/napster free music hack", napster quietly stopped that hole. They have also closed the virtuosa hole without press nor fanfare.
Napster closed those holes efficently and quietly.
Puh-leeze. When will Napster, Apple and the RIAA learn?
.WAV, press play on your DRM-enabled player and record on Goldwave.
.WAV to your CD or use the LAME encoder to convert it back to .MP3.
Anyone with functioning ears can bypass DRM.
Got an old copy of Goldwave? (The new version might do it too).
Simply create a new
Ta-da. DRM-less WAV file.
Use Nero to burn the
He violated the iTunes Music Store Terms of Service and Terms of Sale, breach of contract as it were, which is illegal in most countries. Apple could easily sue him for such things, not that they will.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
Exploit (the transitive verb): to make productive use of : to make use of meanly or unjustly for one's own advantage
Exploit (the noun): a notable or heroic act
It's understandable that people abuse words (as in the subject) but can't we all at least try to avoid doing so when the word as a noun already has a distinct meaning?
If you really care about making money, then you definitely want to avoid the industry contract.
Steve Albini published an excellent rundown of how the industry screws signed bands. In summary:
You have no idea what you're talking about. I know bands (I live in Austin, of course I know bands) that have not only didn't make money on their contracts, but ended up in debt to their record companies. The record companies charge their "expenses" to the band. Bands get a "statement" every month showing all the details and transactions, and the band has to arrange to repay any negative balances on the statement. The record company can use this to blackmail the band -- like not releasing an album and locking down the masters so that the band couldn't release the album under any circumstances. It's all legal because, well, the band signed the contract.
Word to the wise: If you do get a record contract, and your AR guy shows up one day to "take you out to lunch", just simply decline. Otherwise, you'll be the one paying for lunch, 'cause they'll just charge the band for a lunch "expense". It'll show up on your next "statement". Especially if you were signed by a major label. True story.
In the course of every project, it will become necessary to shoot the scientists and begin production.
I think the original phrase is "I could care less about X", and it is meant to be sarcastic.
It's controversial. There is little doubt that "couldn't care less" was the original form, but "could care less" is now in fact commoner in the USA (though not elsewhere). The "sarcasm" interpretation of the illogical form is likely folk etymology, however. It's just a phrase that has lost its original meaning and then been corrupted.
The problem with this, though, is that the songs are already low quality (128Kbps, even though the AAC compression is pretty decent; I have a hard time hearing any artifacts in them). If you burn them, then re-rip them, you're compressing the audio even further, creating a lower-quality version of the song than you already had.
You're not making the lossy original lossier, though. I can't think of too many (any?) audio transcode applications that don't essentially decode the original format into what amounts to an uncompressed waveform and then compresses it into the new format. This is exactly the process for AAC->CD->MP3, since iTunes requires a conversion to physical media.
While its true that iterating this process many times will ultimately have a degrading effect on audio quality, the point at which this is the case is dependent on the codec, bitrate and strategy (VBR, etc). Even 5-6 years ago it was believed that dozens of analog copies between minidiscs were required to show generational effects of transcoding.
I seriously doubt that a single AAC->WAV->MP3 conversion at quality bitrates would show any noticable degredation, especially not in the usual listening environments (cars, mass transit, urban areas, most home audio setups) due to the quality of the equipment and the noise floors associated with the locations.
jHymn addresses that. what Hymn did not do was remove the uid atom and some other atom that when iTunes saw them, it would not play the song. removing the atoms makes iTunes blissfully unaware.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
You are (and always have) bought a license to use a copy, and the rights you have on how you can use that copy are limited.
You do not have, for example, distribution rights.
You cannot buy a copy of a movie or song and then broadcast it. That requires a different type of license.
You do, however, have your fair use rights, which, I agree, are being eroded and trampled upon. Sure, we can just burn to CD and then rip the MP3s back to get rid of Apple's DRM, but using any technique to bypass DRM or copy protection is a Federal Offense (tm) via the DMCA.
So all this bitching and whining about how YOU can't do what YOU want with YOUR music is drek. When you go produce your own music, then it's really YOUR music to do with what you want, and you can philanthropically hand it out on a web at your own expense all you want.
But you are buying a license from somebody with this stuff, and that license clearly delineates what rights do and do not come with it. If you don't like it, then don't friggen buy it.
You're like the people who bitch about gas prices going up but keep driving your cars. Or even worse - the people who plan a one-day "drive-out" where NOBODY BUYS GAS! That'll show those evil oil companies! That'll MAKE them listen!
I just upgraded to iTunes 4.7.1 (after Apple released their "fix"), bought and downloaded a two tracks, and used j-hymn 0.7.5 to convert them. It worked flawlessly.
But Apple was already tightening the screws. The 4.7 version of iTunes prevents DVD Jon's hack from working. It's been out for months now. In addition, with version 4.7.1 Apple "fixed" the program so that instead of sharing my iTunes with 5 people simultaneously over the network at a time, I am limited to 5 people per day. Apple was in the process of tightening the screws already. I don't think these actions invalidate your position, but I just think it's difficult to separate cause and effect here.
Actually that isn't true. Big Black and Negativland where on indie labels and were self recorded and produced. Steve also still will record ANY indie band who will pay is fee and as long as you truly are indie the fee is very manageable. Whoa is the band who comes to him after signing to a major label though, that fee will sky rocket.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
From a mid-90s interview with Neil Young on Canada's Much Music...
Pop-tart interviewer: "How do you feel about the commercialisation of rock music? How do you feel when a Bob Dylan song is used to sell cars?"
Young: "I hold no illusions. We lost. Long ago."
interviewer:"Did you sell out?"
Young:"Well, I'm here on your show..."
John Maynard Keynes: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?"
Please stop perpetuating this myth. Apple have publicly stated that they would continue to use DRM even if the music labels didn't ask them to.
FairPlay is about stifling competition as much or more as it is about protecting copyrights.
Sure, if you don't mind your musical career being over.
See, the big labels put in an exclusivity clause. Sure, you can "simply walk away", but you can't then release music commercially, even as part of another band, until you've paid them back what you owe and they've given you permission to record for someone else, or the duration of the contract you signed has expired.
And that's not the worst of it. It's not necessarily you who gets to decide whether to "simply walk away"; the record label can decide that it's not going to bother releasing anything you record, but you're still under contract and can't record for anyone else.
I know a couple of musicians who got fucked that way. They signed with a major label (Polygram). After a couple of singles, the label decided the musicians hadn't been profitable enough, so nothing more would be released. However, they couldn't go back to their indie label, because they were under contract for the next 8 years. So, that was the end of their musical career as artists; they worked as producers for a while, then found jobs outside the music industry.
I guess if all you care about is making money, and you don't mind your musical career ending totally if you fail to make big bucks, then a major label contract would seem like an OK deal.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
There are a number of utilities (for example Audio Hijack) that allow you to do this on the Mac.