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Jon Johansen Breaks iTunes DRM Yet Again

ikewillis writes "Remember earlier today when Apple released an update supposedly blocking the hole in iTMS recently discovered by Jon Johansen? News.com reports that he has already worked around the update, and iTMS can now be accessed from non-Windows/MacOS X systems using the new version of his PyMusique software. You can view his blog entry on the issue (ironically titled So Sue Me). More power to you, Jon!"

109 of 1,286 comments (clear)

  1. So sue him? by nsaneinside · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, don't worry. They will.

    1. Re:So sue him? by ikewillis · · Score: 5, Informative
      Jon Johanson has already been repudiated of any crime in Norway, a country which isn't part of the EU and doesn't have any DMCA-style laws.

      He's likely acting as a front for another group doing the grunt work who doesn't want the legal exposure.

      Given the current legal precedent he's acquired in Norway, it's highly unlikely Apple will be able to prosecute.

    2. Re:So sue him? by SilentChris · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because, of course, the court cases that Jon went through (DMCA infringment involving DVD encryption) relate directly to DMA involved with iTunes. After all, DMCA is DMCA, right? Let's lump all the cases together.

      In other news, I will no longer be going to court for any speeding tickets I get. Since I already went once, and was cleared of charges, it obviously means I can do so again and again.

    3. Re:So sue him? by Zocalo · · Score: 4, Informative

      Is "sosume" really slipping into IT history already? For those that don't know, and thus get the in-joke, Apple Computers was once sued by Apple Music, the Beatles record label, over the use of the name "Apple". This was back when the Macintosh was still in the early stages of development, long before the much more recent legal spat between the two Apples over iTMS. Part of the settlement agreement that resulted was that Apple Computers would not enter into competion with Apple Music. When Apple shipped the Macintosh with audio support one of the included sound files was called "sosume" - a pun at the expense of Apple Music.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    4. Re:So sue him? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually, it was sosumi, and it didn't show up until System 7 (at the same time as the ability to record audio via a built-in mic was added to the Macintosh line).

    5. Re:So sue him? by Lord+Kano · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's most of the story. The sound "Sosumi" was originally to be named "xylophone", but someone at Apple's legal dept thought that it could get them in trouble because of their agreement with Apple Music to not get into the music business. The developer of the sound suggested that they change the name of xylophone to sosumi, which HE SAID was japanese for "the abesence of all musicality". Apple legal agreed and a great "FU" was unleashed on the world.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    6. Re:So sue him? by Junior+J.+Junior+III · · Score: 4, Funny

      DVDJon is like one of those martial arts masters who, no matter how you come at him, just makes a slight, barely perceptible move, and defeats his opponents.

      DRM company: "Take that!"

      DVDJon: "OK, I'll just try holding down the shift key, and..."

      DRM company: "Damn, you're good!"

      --
      You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
    7. Re:So sue him? by koehn · · Score: 4, Informative

      That's a great story, pity it's not true, IIRC.

      "Sosumi" was the name of the sound, and it came from the equally amusing battle between Apple Computer and Carl "Billions and Billions" Sagan.

      It seems Apple code-named the Power Mac 7500 "Sagan". Not that they were going to call the shipping unit by that name mind you, but just internally they needed to call it something, so they named it after the great scientist, probably out of respect.

      In any case, somebody with Carl's crew found out about it and got torqued, and filed a lawsuit. Apple, after an initial WTF? reaction, obliged, and changed the name to the supposedly innocuous "BHA". Turns out that BHA stood for Butt Head Astronomer, at which point more saber-rattling was heard in the Sagan camp.

      In any case, the System Software released with the Power Mac 7500 included a new sound, "sosumi." I don't recall it having anything to do with Apple Music.

    8. Re:So sue him? by rootofevil · · Score: 4, Informative

      sorry, thats completely inaccurate

      the 7100 was "Sagan" (the 6100 was "Piltdown Man" and the 8100 was "Cold Fusion") [link]

      sosumi the system sound was included in system 7, several years before the 7100 was ever created (that shipped with 7.5) [link]

      --
      turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
    9. Re:So sue him? by mrpuffypants · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Interesting side note too: If you check the code for Apple's web pages, the CSS class for all of their tiny-text legal phrases is named "sosumi".

      Check it out: www.apple.com -> view source -> search for "sosumi" :)

    10. Re:So sue him? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      First off, this is Norway. Norway is notably short on laws with awe inspiring monikers. You don't see titles like "Digital Millenium", PATRIOT" or "Save The Children."

      DVD Jon got off because the non-infringing use case was a clear slamdunk. It made it possible to play legally owned DVDs on a Linux PC. As a bonus, the software is of little use to counterfeiters.

      Effectively, the DMCA criminalizes reverse-engineering. Since that's only against the law in the US (with the Queen apparently happy to send her own to Uncle Ernie) there was nothing to charge him with. The MPAA lobbied fiercely for extradition but the fact that what he did was no more criminal than chewing gum in LA kind of spoke against that.

      I don't know enough about Jon's latest project or iTunes to know what the non-infringing or infringing uses are. He's definitely not getting charged under the DMCA.

      On the political side, Okokrim, the white collar crime unit, played the role of Corporate America's frothing dog last time. They've obviously got one on for Jon but they've got to back off or come up with a rock solid case. The last investigation had to cost a bundle and if this one is at all close, it starts to look like they are spending a great deal of taxpayer's money to harass a prominent person.

      Jon's been here before and he doesn't seem nervous. I'm guessing he's got his ducks in a row: a solid non-infringing use, maybe a method of capturing and playing back the actual packet stream, the analogue hole and unsuitability for commercial use.

      My take is that Jon and his counsel believe that what he has done is legal in Norway and that they can make a solid case for it.

    11. Re:So sue him? by RenatoRam · · Score: 5, Informative

      Most of the end user licenses of software and services are completely meaningless in Europe (and in Norway).

      The laws protecting the customer are far stronger here, and the seller cannot impose rules on the buyer without explicit (hand signed) acceptance of EACH clause on a written contract.

      Yes, you guessed it, even Microsoft's EULAs have been proved to be largely unenforceable (for example) in Italy.

      --
      Ciao, Renato
    12. Re:So sue him? by kyojin+the+clown · · Score: 5, Funny

      To be fair, virtually ALL laws are largely unenforceable in Italy... =)

    13. Re:So sue him? by misterpies · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "the seller cannot impose rules on the buyer without explicit (hand signed) acceptance of EACH clause on a written contract"

      IAAL (in Europe but not Italy) and can state for a fact that this is not the case in all of Europe, and I very much doubt it is in Norway or Italy.

      Think about it. What is a contract? It's not a piece of paper, it's any legally enforceable agreement between two or more people. Every time you buy anything, that's a contract. And any time you buy anything online there will be sellers' terms and conditions to agree with, regarding payment and delivery if nothing else. So either this person is wrong, or online commerce does not exist in Italy (and nor does any business not in which written docs are not exchanged).

      I can believe that many EULAs are invalid under European consumer protection laws, but they're not invalid simply because they don't make you sign a document. (Indeed the point of most consumer protection laws are to protect you even if you do sign that document, since they recognise that the individual consumer isn't in much of a position to dictate terms to megacorp.)

      --
      The author of this post asserts his moral rights.
  2. A Name! by kryogen1x · · Score: 4, Interesting
    At least they called him by his name, not just "The iTunes back door guy."

    I wonder, did he work around it that quickly, or was he anticipating Apple's fix and already knew another way around it?

    1. Re:A Name! by ikewillis · · Score: 5, Informative
      Apple merely locked out all clients not using the iTMS 4.7 protocol, which previous versions of PyMusique didn't support. The new version of PyMusique merely adds support for the new protocol revision. The unencrypted, DRM free songs are still sent to the client from the music store.

      The only way for Apple to actually fix this hole is to handle DRM encryption server side, unless you consider the problem is unresolved due to the fact that DRM is a fundamentally flawed concept.

    2. Re:A Name! by RonnyJ · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It seems likely to me that he had already worked out the encryption for v4.7 of iTunes, but deliberately withheld it as he anticipated the forced upgrade to v4.7, and releasing such a 'quick fix' serves to gain him more notoriety.

    3. Re:A Name! by ikewillis · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Don't you get it? How does the server distinguish between a legitimate copy of iTunes or another program like PyMusick that talks an identical wire protocol? Various programs have attempted to block 3rd party servers and clients (i.e. AIM, Warcraft) and the only way they've managed to be successful is using the DMCA to prosecute the people doing the reverse engineering. There's no way to prevent a client or server from talking the same wire protocol.

      PyMusick could send the same public key, iTMS would send it the same song, and PyMusic could decrypt the song with its private key, yielding the same unencrypted, DRM-free file. Adding public key cryptography does nothing to solve the problem.

      They could use private key cryptography, but the key would have to ship with every copy of iTunes, where it could be discovered through disassembly of the encryption algorithm. This is the exact approach KaZaA used, and it was reverse engineered, but 3rd party KaZaA clients were halted thanks to the DMCA.

    4. Re:A Name! by finkployd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There is nothing flawed about DRM.

      Allow me to give you a quick refresher on public key encryption. With public key encryption Alice has a public key and a private key. Anything encrypted with the public key can only be decrypted with the private key. So Alice keeps her private key private and allows Bob to have her public key.

      Now let's look at how DRM tries to turn this upside down and fails. With any DRM, the basic concept is that Bob is going to give Alice her private key, but try to keep it totally private from her. By definition it needs to be stored on her device (PC, ipod, whatever) to decrypt what Bob sends her, but he does not want her using it in any way that he disapproves of. So convoluted schemes of symmetric encryption and security by obscurity are developed to store this private key in such a way that only certain programs on Alice's device can access it, but nothing else can (nor can Alice access it directly). However, since the machine is under Alice's control it is only a matter of time before she finds it or figures out how to use it to decrypt data as she pleases. This is why nearly every DRM scheme in history has been broken.

      It is a fundamentally flawed concept.

  3. Re:As a record store owner. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You posted all that text just two minutes after the story is posted? I smell a troll.

  4. Re:As a record store owner. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am proud to assist in bankrupting you sir, but the main reason I don't buy CD's is because they still cost almost 4 times the price of a DVD on sale. So, when the record companies get with the times and charge $5 for a CD, I'll start buying again. Till then, have fun trying to file Chapter 11 under the new Republican bankruptcy rules.

  5. Interesting by mt+v2.7 · · Score: 3, Funny

    1. Make software that breaks old version of iTunes
    2. Make software that breaks new version of iTunes
    3. Released version that breaks old iTunes
    4. Wait for iTunes users to be forced to upgrade
    5. Immmediatly release version that breaks new iTunes
    6. Impress people
    7. ????
    8. Profit!

  6. Companies won't let us "Get over it" by VidEdit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "If you don't like the restrictions set on the songs, then don't pay $0.99 to buy it through the iTMS. Buy it or download it somewhere else..."

    In the long run, that is a false option. More and more CDs are copy protected and eventually there will be no more cds made, just as they no longer make LPs. Both the content industry and electronics companies have a vested interest in restricting you from exercising your legal rights under copyright law.

    Digital Rights Restriction, such as Apple's ironically named "FairPlay," prevent consumers from exercising their right to copy their music to playback the device of their choice.

    Consumers have a number of legal rights that DRR'd music prevents them from exercising, including the right to re-sell their used music. The Doctrine of First Purchase says that you can re-sell copyrighted material without needing permission from the rights holder. This is why used bookstores are legal. And this right to resell still applies to music and digital files, hence the reason that used CD stores are legal.

    Consumers have a legal right to re-sell their downloaded music, too, but Apple and other vendors of Digital Rights Restricted music make it technically impossible for consumers to exercise their legal rights under copyright law.

    So, it isn't a matter of "Just by a CD or get your music 'somwhere else' and shut up." Fighting the indiscriminate appropriation of consumers legal rights by companies use Digital Rights Restriction technology is an important moral and legal issue

    --
    1. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by jimbolaya · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Well, actually that's the doctrine of first sale. This doctrine prevents a copyright holder or vendor (such as Apple) from filing a claim against you for re-selling an item, but it doesn't say that the original seller (Apple, in this case) has to make it easy or possible for you to do so. They just cannot forbid you from doing so.

      In other words, your "rights" are not being violated by DRM.

      --

      There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.

    2. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by VidEdit · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "The iPod is my playback device of choice. I buy songs that work with it. I don't go to Real or Napster, buy music, and then try to work around their DRM to strip it and make it compatible with my iPod."

      Why not? Today, the iPod may be your device of choice, but what if, tomorrow, a company comes out with a much, much better device. Will you still be happy? You won't if you bought Rights Restricted songs from Apple. Your songs will live and die on that iPod like a caged animal and your investment will forever be tied to Apple's largesse--and the life-span of your iPod. Your argument is like a person in a locked room saying he chooses to stay in the room of his own free will, not realizing that he can't open the door should he ever decide to leave.

      The term "Digital Rights Management" is a misnomer. It doesn't let you, the consumer, manage anything. The proper term is Digital Rights Restriction because the technology restricts the ways you are allowed to use your music in ways that copyright law does not allow rights holders to restrict you. You are legally allowed to resell copyrighted material, including digital media like CDs and DVDs. DRR prevents you from exercising your legal rights.

      --
    3. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by 1lus10n · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Thats your choice. Whats the option for somebody who wants a plain jane high quality file without DRM so they can play it in their car, at home, at work, on their mobile device etc ???

      Right now there is not a choice unless you want to pay thousands extra to purchase a single brand closed solution that might ultimately fail or be shut down which would lead to all that music being unusable. You can have the data, you just can have access to it.

      I buy CD's because usually they are cheaper for me than buying indivdual songs (everything I listen too is worth buying the whole album.). I take them home, rip to a 256 or 320kbps VBR MP3 and stack the CD along with the thousands of others that I have. It sits there collecting dust because I have a harddrive player in my car, I stream whatever I want to work and I own a portable mp3 player. I have never used P2P to share my music, I checked out some of the stuff on napster about 5 years ago and it was all crap quality so it wasnt worth my time.

      Now lets say they stop making CD's. Where does that leave me ?

      Lets say they update the itms and/or ipod firmware to only play songs encoded with the "new" codec, where does that leave you ?

      You wanna trust them with your data, go ahead. Me ? I am going to keep fighting. If I purchase something I own it and should have the right to do what I want with it.

      I would also point out that Jon's work isnt to make the songs work on other mobile devices, thats a side effect. The idea is to allow people who dont use a corporate OS (Windows, MAC) to use the itms. To the best of my knowledge none of the current major label online soulutions offer a "plain jane" high quality mp3, or a way to work with linux. (I might be wrong since I have never tried)

      --
      "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." --Albert Einstein
    4. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by VidEdit · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Well, actually that's the doctrine of first sale. This doctrine prevents a copyright holder or vendor (such as Apple) from filing a claim against you for re-selling an item, but it doesn't say that the original seller (Apple, in this case) has to make it easy or possible for you to do so. They just cannot forbid you from doing so."

      Indeed that is one the problems with Digital Rights Restriction, and the DCMA. The DCMA allows companies to Rights Restrict copyrighted works in perpetuity, granting them an illegal end run around the constitutional limits of copyright terms.

      In the mean time, it is important that traditional copyrights activists use the correct terminology to describe this restriction on consumer rights, Digital Rights Restriction.

      Until we are able to discuss content control systems by an accurate name, we will never be able to have an honest discussion of the issues involved.

      --
    5. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by ballantrae_j · · Score: 5, Informative

      there are options. there's magnatune.com for starters. Look, there is "someplace else" to buy or download stuff. It drives me crazy that mostly everyone here bitches and complains about the Evil Music Industry, but no one is willing to try out alternatives. Guys there are alternatives. If we would all make use of them, then the artists would sign contracts with those alternates! Besides, it's honest. -ron

    6. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by DavidTC · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Thanks to the DMCA, it is illegal to crack DRM songs.

      With the copy protection, it is impossible to resell.

      Ergo, thanks to the DMCA, it is impossible to resell in a legal way. Which is another way of saying that reselling it is illegal.

      Saying our 'rights' are not being violated is crazy. The laws in combination with DRM have made it illegal to exercise our rights.

      They can do whatever they want to make it hard. It's when they get the government to come in to make it illegal that is a violation of our rights.

      And it's not just first sale...fair use is rather inhibited, also.

      --
      If corporations are people, aren't stockholders guilty of slavery?
    7. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 5, Funny

      MTV has obtained exclusive contracts such that certain music videos could only be found on MTV.

      MTV still plays videos?

      --
      "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
    8. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by VidEdit · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. That's what everyone who implements it calls it"

      And before that, it was called "Copy Protection." The language we use to discuss the issue of content control frames the discussion. There is no reason to let the content industry frame the issue with the misleading term "management" just because it works for them. The Orwell inspired name for Microsoft's total system lockdown, "Trusted Computing" is a fine example--and it is the one that Stallman is calling into question with the counter term "Treacherous Computing". Tomorrow the industry may try to say their Rights Restriction technology is Consumer Media Choice technology, and we shouldn't let them get away with that, either.

      However, in the case of content control systems Digital Rights Restriction more accurately describe the technology from a consumer perspective. This technology doesn't let consumers manage anything, it manages them by restricting their rights to use their digital media.

      --
    9. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by radish · · Score: 5, Funny

      In the long run, that is a false option. More and more CDs are copy protected and eventually there will be no more cds made, just as they no longer make LPs

      Wow. All this brand new vinyl I bought the other day must be a figment of my imagination. Time to lay off the acid...

      --

      ---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"

    10. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by Doctor_Jest · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "it isn't a matter of "Just by a CD or get your music 'somwhere else' and shut up." Fighting the indiscriminate appropriation of consumers legal rights by companies use Digital Rights Restriction technology is an important moral and legal issue."

      True. It is. Personally I couldn't care less if they locked up all the music in the world. I am much more worried about the bigger picture, as you say. I don't know if I fight enough. But I write, and I try to inform. But no one listens. Quite frankly, not many of us are fighting the onslaught. No one cares, because they can still sit back in their vinyl chair and watch boobies from satellite with their 55" TV they bought at 22% interest from Best Buy.

      Ask anyone not a regular reader of Slashdot what they're doing to send Orrin Hatch a clear message to leave our computers alone. They'll look at you as if you're eyes just fell out. Ask them if they're fighting Trusted Computing. They won't have an inkling of what you're on about. Ask them if they hate the draconian licensing scheme of Windows XP. They don't care. Ask them what the perpetual copyright is doing to our Public Domain... Ask them why we are constantly giving up our individual rights for the rights of a faceless corporation. As long as the mob has their reality TV and buckets of beer, they won't lift a finger.

      I wish more of us were proactive. I wish I did more, honestly. The world is in need of some no-doze because the planet's spiraling out of control.

      I can only hope the line that wakes up the unwashed masses isn't too far down the road. But, in the smaller picture... it's just music. I don't necessarily give two monkeys about it anyway.

      --
      It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
    11. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by FuzzzyLogik · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Wrong. Part of the license agreement is not that you are "buying" the song, you're licensing the right to listen to the song. just so happens that you are limited to listening to it on 3 (or is it 5) computers, 10 (same playlist) cd's, or an unlimited number of ipods (that you own). i personally think that the itms license is pretty fair, as are the prices. but you AGREED to that license.. either fight it in court or go with it.

    12. Re:Companies won't let us "Get over it" by ebyrob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Qaint. Pretend I don't have any rights so there's nothing to take away. It would be funny if it weren't both pathetic and threatening at the same time. (pathetic because it is so naive, threatening because day by day it becomes more of a reality...)

      To turn it back on you (forwards to the rest of the world). Copyright's are exclusive rights of the copyright holder including the right to:

      1) To reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords;

      2) To prepare derivative works based upon the work;

      3) To distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;

      4) To perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

      5) To display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and

      6) In the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

      So, anything not in this list I'm allowed to do no questions asked. In fact, the only way a copyright holder could (possibly) get me to give up further rights would be to get me to agree the work is being rented, leased etc. rather than being sold. (...A dirty trick if pulled off successfully...)

      Consumer rights under copyright:

      1) First Sale, the right to resell something once you're done using it.

      2) Fair use, the right to freely use portions of a work for criticism, parody and the like.

      3) Archival, the right to make backup copies of purchased works.

      4) Reverse Engineering, the right to take apart and understand a purchased work.

      Perhaps you can see why I think pretending these rights don't exist is coercive at best...

  7. Hire they guy.... by thejuggler · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Maybe Apple should pay Jon to build a better DRM. At least he'd be doing something legal for a change.

    1. Re:Hire they guy.... by finkployd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      DRM is a cryptographically unsound concept. Flawed at its very core. Nobody who understands PKI (and is being honest) actually believes in it, just clueless media providers (and the techies who take advantage of them by building DRM).

      Finkployd

  8. Re:Best Solution ... by RonnyJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Then ... Apple would be cool.

    Then ... Apple wouldn't be allowed to sell music anymore.

  9. Blog Message by Ken@WearableTech · · Score: 4, Informative

    His server seems to be /.ed The blog entry is: The iTunes Music Store recently stopped supporting iTunes versions below 4.7 in an attempt to shut out 3rd party clients. I have reverse engineered the iTMS 4.7 crypto which will once again enable 3rd party clients to communicate with the iTMS.

  10. Re:As a record store owner. by ari_j · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Even if every person who downloaded music from the Internet did so after paying for the music, such as through iTunes (I don't know if this hack involves circumventing the payment system or only the DRM attached to paid-for songs; I presume that it is the latter, because if it were the former then Apple and others would have a case against Jon for contributory copyright infringement and would have filed that suit already), your store would be suffering just the same.

    Your problem is a business model that is becoming increasingly obsolete. Your solution is not to blacklist pirates, but rather to adapt to a market where people legally buy and download music from the Internet rather than purchasing it at physical record stores. If you can't compete in that market, then it's nobody's fault but your own that your business fails as a result.

    Failed businesses are nothing to be ashamed of. But you need to do a cost-benefit analysis of each option in front of you. Among them are continuing as you are, adapting to the new marketplace, pursuing your blacklisting system (which only affects pirates, not lawful downloaders), and bailing out.

    And remember: Shit happens.

  11. Good for him... by Duncan3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Good thing this was Apple.

    Any other company would have just had him killed already.

    --
    - Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
    1. Re:Good for him... by labratuk · · Score: 3, Funny

      Apple doesn't have to - they just rely on their fanboys to do it for them.

      --
      Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
  12. An arms race by Space+cowboy · · Score: 3, Insightful


    This isn't going to be popular with the 'no DRM is good DRM' brigade. So Sue Me.

    So Jon's done it again. Well, the man has testicles of steel because Apple are currently taking legal action against another single person. Making the blog title 'So Sue Me' is just asking for it, IMHO. Even if (and I say *if*) Apple haven't a leg to stand on, they can afford far fancier lawyers. Rather him than me.

    What's the knock-on effect ? Apple have to have some DRM in place to keep their corporate music-land clients happy, or the contracts they've signed will be revoked, and they'll lose loadsamoney. This is just a guess, but I'm pretty sure the RIAA/whoever wouldn't have given Apple carte-blanche to sell their music without some degree of "protection" (whether required or not is a different argument).

    So, Apple will have to respond. Off the top of my head, I think they'll be forced into making the iTMS contact Apple regularly for a right to play the library (similar to Kerberos). The right to play will be governed by whether the library is "legal" or not (ie: if any tracks have the same signature as on the iTunes website, but no DRM, prevent playback of either the entire library or just those songs.

    Or they could do DRM management completely on the server, change the file format to heavily encrypt the system, change the OS, hell, change the machine hardware if necessary.

    The point is that none of this is good for me, or in fact for Apple, but they'll be forced to go down this road because their clients will demand their "protection", and people like Jon will keep on breaking anything too lenient. So, in the end, Apple either lock the system down completely using hardware, or they drop the music business. Well done guys, now everyone's happy.

    Simon.

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
    1. Re:An arms race by Endareth · · Score: 3, Insightful
      <snip>The right to play will be governed by whether the library is "legal" or not (ie: if any tracks have the same signature as on the iTunes website, but no DRM, prevent playback of either the entire library or just those songs.<snip>
      Signature? Off the top of my head I can't think of any way to force a signature that can't be easily bypassed. First thing I thought of when I read this was when Metallica got the original Napster to prevent anyone sharing files with the word "Metallica" in it... kind of like a signature really. So people just changed the names, putting 1 instead of i, and the signature check was bypassed.

      Any signature on a music file can be trivially bypassed by flipping a bit, thus rendering the any signature system useless.

      There may be other ways to implement some sort of music check, but they would all be just as easily bypassed. How can a server possibly determine whether an mp3/aac/whatever is one that has been ripped from a cd, or downloaded/bought from iTunes, or from somewhere else completely?
      --
      Disclaimer: The above comment was made while under the influence of too much coding and not enough sleep.
    2. Re:An arms race by FuzzzyLogik · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm going to mention it here but someone else has already brought up the so sue me title...

      The title of the blog was So Sue Me long before Jon went after iTunes Music Store like this. It's not something he's saying to Apple, ever since the DVD DMCA thing he has had this blog titled that way. Don't get the idea he's got that title in there JUST to spite Apple.

    3. Re:An arms race by seanadams.com · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apple have to have some DRM in place to keep their corporate music-land clients happy,

      Will you please stop propagating this nonsense?

      The DRM is not about placating the music companies, and it never was. For Apple, it is about platform lock-in. The DMCA gives Apple the ability to lock out competition by a means that, although technically trivial to circumvent, is now illegal to hack in any way. At least in the USA, land of the free, where you can't do certain things with stuff you've paid for.

  13. Just develop a Linux version by __aaxpkq8573 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    of iTunes and see if this is all he is after. That is what he says anyway.

    1. Re:Just develop a Linux version by natrius · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not that easy. iTunes on both Windows and OS X depends on Quicktime. Porting Quicktime would be a lot of extra work on top of the special UI things they already do when they port programs. They could use a media framework that is already present on Linux, but I doubt they would want to do that. In addition, to not have a half-assed port, they would have to support iPods and other MP3 players like they do on Windows. I think this part is the least of their worries, since most MP3 players use the USB Mass Storage driver (does iTunes on Windows even support those which don't?), and all iPods are supported in Linux. The main barriers are Quicktime and the iTunes interface.

      The largest barrier is that they probably just don't want to do it. It doesn't seem economically sound to me to do so either.

    2. Re:Just develop a Linux version by dr.badass · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Everything Apple needs to port iTunes (or at the very least, a stripped-down version) to Linux already exists.

      Except for that pesky "economic incentive" thing.

      You're suggesting that Apple port iTunes to appease...
      1) Linux desktop users, who...
      2) aren't buying Apple hardware or Mac OS X or iPods, and...
      3) are willing to accept 128kbps AAC files with DRM, and...
      4) are already openly and actively circumventing said DRM,and...
      5) are already using pymusique to buy from them.

      In other words, an absolutely tiny market that is basically opposed to everything else they do, that is already buying.

      There's just no reason for Apple to care, no matter how "easy" you seem to think it would be.

      --
      Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
  14. Re:rant by Wordsmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, there are those of us who think that no DRM is acceptable - and furthermore that no DRM is unbreakable, and therefore futile. DVD Jon's done a great job demonstrating the latter with iTMS, and previously DVDCSS.

    This isn't about getting free music. It's about removing restrictions that traditionally haven't been in place on consumer media. DRM of any kind can become an obstruction even during benign activities traditionally protected under fair use. Sure, i COULD burn my DRMed AACs to a CD then re-rip to an MP3 to get my files onto my NOMAD or CD-MP3 player, but it's a pain in the rear and I'm going to lose my tag info. If there weren't restrictions on the files, that would be a non-issue.

    Yes, Apple's DRM is less obtrusive than most, but it still locks you out from things you've traditionally been allowed to do. And that's simply not OK.

  15. Better story by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Yahoo ran this story as well. I found their version of it a little more interesting:


    "The goal with DRM systems, Gupta explained, is to make it more convenient for music downloaders to pay the fee than to spend time searching for the song for free."


    I'm no fan of DRM, but it's about time SOMEBODY finally has the right goal in mind. Make legitimacy more convenient. I've been paying $10 a month for nearly 2 years now to Rhapsody. Since then, I've made 0 (zero, just in case any of you thought it was a typo.) MP3 downloads. Why? Their subscription service is significantly faster and easier. Okay, subscription's not for everybody, but the price is right and the service beats P2P.

    Believe it or not, the *AA can compete with free. I'm looking forward to the day that this is more widely understood. I really want the instant gratification of buying content on-line.
    --
    "Derp de derp."
    1. Re:Better story by Forgotten · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're on the right track here, but the logical extension is that the DRM is unnecessary - what keeps people buying is the better and more consistent experience of buying from a place like the iTMS (and perhaps a mild warm fuzzy of doing things the legal way, and/or paying the companies and people involved). It's not the stick of DRM, but the carrot of a well-designed service.

      As you say, the ability to conveniently obtain the music you want has driven your MP3 download count to nothing. Removing the DRM from the bought tracks would only strengthen that impulse, as well as extend it to people like me who won't buy unless there is no DRM (though I also won't be buying until the price is at least halved - the current rate remains exorbitant, even compared to CD prices where I live, and downloading shared music is legal here).

  16. Re:More power to you, Jon! by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And those of us who have *paid* also have the right to remove the DRM once it gets to us. Sounds fair to me.

    If you don't want to then fine... wait until you upgrade your computer and find that DRM has locked you out because you 'copied' the files to the new one.

  17. Maybe Apple doesn't really care if DRM is broken? by frdmfghtr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just some food for thought...

    If Apple really doesn't want to have to use DRM on it's iTunes downloads, and they write patches that are supposed to fix loopholes and these patches are easily defeated...

    Is it conceivable that Apple doesn't care if the patches are easily circumvented? "Yeah, we'll fix something we don't really want, and if you happen to break it, you outfoxed us *wink wink nudge nudge*

    Just a thought.

    --
    Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
  18. Breaking the DRM? by p0rnking · · Score: 4, Informative

    If I remember correctly, he never did break the DRM, instead he captured the audio file before it went through the iTunes software, which puts the DRM into the audio file ... therefore there is no DRM to break.
    And no, I didn't RTFA

  19. Re:More power to you, Jon! by aussie_a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Their DRM infringe on my right to:
    * Copy music to the playback device of my choice.
    * Re-sell a product I have purchased (selling a book second hand is legal. Selling second-hand music is also legal. See Doctrine of First Purchase for more details).

    Anyone that gives me back my legal rights, is someone who deserves encouraging.

  20. More power to you, Jon, and I stand by that! by ikewillis · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Hi, I submitted this story.

    The music industry is plagued by an enormous problem of legacy. Creativity has been stifled by the labels' continuing drive towards commercialization. We have "artists" like Gwen Stefani releasing cover after cover, first covering Talk Talk's It's My Life then covering If I Were A Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof, and both covers are atrocious. These are examples of an industry which is creatively bankrupt and where profit is the bottom line. It seems like nowadays the only place you can find creativity is in underground music, before the industry has commercialized and destroyed it.

    Music needs a new distribution model, one where the artist is in the driver's seat and has complete creative control over their work. The Internet has rendered traditional music labels obsolete, they're aware of this, and they're fighting their eventual downfall tooth and nail. They will lose.

    DRM is based around cryptographically unsound principles. In order to play DRM encrypted music you need the encrypted content and the key on your local system. Given this you have everything you need to unlock the encrypted data, it's only through obfuscation in the client that the key is hidden.

    Eventually the industry will have to come to terms with this fact and the fact that their distribution model is antequated and obsolete. We need people to continue proving DRM is an unsound technology so eventually they give up on it entirely.

    1. Re:More power to you, Jon, and I stand by that! by iCEBaLM · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Look, I understand these arguments (and have for a long time). But I can't help but consider that your arguments invalidate something else which you no doubt support, which is encryption for your own personal privacy. Why is that "okay", and DRM isn't? And further, why is DRM not okay simply because you have a key embedded in software or a device for playback?

      Because encryption for my personal privacy doesn't infringe on any of your rights whereas DRM infringes yours, mine and everyone elses rights to copy for personal backup, right of resale (doctrine of first sale), right to timeshift and right to reverse engineer for interoperability.

      Your arguments and contrasting of issues are not congruent.

    2. Re:More power to you, Jon, and I stand by that! by iCEBaLM · · Score: 3, Informative

      I guess what I'm getting at is: why patronize this store?

      I personally don't for various reasons, however you shouldn't rail those who do for standing up for their rights. That being said, on to the show:

      As a content owner, how can I be sure you've deleted the copy you owned when you "sell" it to your friend?

      You can't, however if you suspect me of breaking the law on your copyright sue me. Innocent until proven guilty my friend.

      They'd just be downloading it for free in the first place, regurgitating something they read on slashdot about a "dying business model" justifying their behavior.

      In the states this is a big issue and I agree it is morally wrong however where I live, in Canada, it's a bit different. I pay a levy on all my blank media to prop up the dying recording giants. I figure if I'm going to have to pay them so I can back up my hard drive and burn linux distro ISOs then I'm going to get a little something from them. You can try to argue this point with me all you wish, but if I'm giving them money for essentially nothing then I want something in return.

      And in the case of iTunes Music Store, you can

      - copy for personal backup, including burning to CD in an uncompressed, non-DRM format
      - "timeshift" the content (which is admittedly meaningless in this context)
      - however, iTunes Music Store's license (fuck the DMCA) prohibits reverse engineering


      Since you're able to copy for personal backup to an unencumbered format I don't really have a problem with iTMS as the rest of the rights can effectively be done from that unencumbered format. Right to Timeshift means more than just playback at a later time and does apply here. It means allowing playback on other devices, for example: CD music copied to cassette tape for play in non-CD equipped cars.

      Right of reverse engineering for interoperability means the interoperability of the copyright work, not the distribution medium. In this case interoperability for the music to play on non-ipod/non-itunes players. I'm not sure if Apple is legally allowed to restrict interoperability of the iTMS protocols or not as IANAL.

  21. Re:As a record store owner. by portwojc · · Score: 4, Informative

    Funny this was posted back in 10/22/2003

    Here you go:

    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=83129&thresh ol d=1&commentsort=0&tid=141&tid=188&mode=thread&cid= 7278955

  22. Re:More power to you, Jon! by Monkelectric · · Score: 3, Funny
    Then why, pray tell, would you ever patronize a store like that to begin with?

    Because its yuppie-chic?

    --

    Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

  23. Re:More power to you, Jon! by RodgerDodger · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Um, wrong...

    RTFA: the "back door" doesn't strip out the DRM. It merely lets you play it on Linux - if you want to get it, you need to buy it.

    As iTunes already allows you burn purchased tracks to CD (allowing them to be ripped into MP3s according to the article), all this does is allow you to play music you purchase. After all, what are the odds that the music you steal is DRM'd when there's so much un-DRM'd music to steal instead?

    All this is doing, as far as I can see, is filling a hole in the market by producing a player that works under Linux. Heck, they're not even releasing a Windows version - Windows already has a free-as-in-beer player in iTunes.

    --
    "Software is too expensive to build cheaply"
  24. Re:Why are we proud of this guy? by Cheeze · · Score: 3, Insightful

    let's see:

    1. bring up some other hero to make the topic of this story seem insignificant? CHECK
    2. act unimpressed by his hack? CHECK
    3. try to make a metaphor relating computer software to killing people? CHECK

    and finally...
    4. try to impose your rules on others based on wild assumptions? priceless /cliche

    --
    Why read the article when I can just make up a snap judgement?
  25. Jeez... by sethadam1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ok people, let's review the facts, since most people don't seem to know or read...

    1. DVD Jon lives in Norway, where the majority of this stuff, including the release of DeCSS which breaks DVD encoding, is illegal. The court case failed.

    2. Nobody broke Apple's DRM. All this does is retreive the music before the iTunes client adds the DRM. How is this possible? Apple's iTunes client adds the DRM because it needs the client to generate the key. Doing it any other way would likely be a tremendous processor increase on the iTunes servers.

    3. Apple can sue DVD Jon if they choose, but it will likely do no good.

    The way I see it, there's only one safe path for Apple. They should release an iTunes client for Linux along with a statement that any further attempt to block their DRM will be followed up with a lawsuit. Sure, the lawsuit part is either a bluff or a waste of time, but at least they eliminate the "It's just so we can run on Linux" argument.

  26. Re:This Is NOT to Be Applauded by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Creating these hacks is really like taking the silverware and plates out of a restaurant when you know you are really paying just for the food.

    Or perhaps it's more like bringing your own tupperware with you when you go to the restaurant, so that you can take the food with you and eat it anywhere you want.

  27. Re:Whack a mole by LocoMan · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Of course, unless the record labels's answer ends up being:

    [Record Labels, to Apple] Sorry, you can't guarantee security with your store, so we won't license the music to you anymore.

  28. Hmm... site down. by Doyle · · Score: 4, Funny

    Perhaps he should have titled his blog "So slashdot me"

  29. Re:Yes, more power to you! by NEW22 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why do we have to treat the music labels like some kind of poor skittish fawn in a petting zoo? I mean, you say they are scared of offering online music because it may be, um, cracked. The big news flash is this: If you buy the CD, it is already "cracked" so to speak. Did they forget about CDs? Should we help the music industry lock down CDs somehow so they don't get so scared they stop selling us music all together?

    Like I said earlier today, I could buy music from the iTunes store, which comes in a mediocre sound quality (compared to DRM-free CDs), in a format that doesn't work with my portable music player. Then I could burn it to a CD, then rip the CD into another lossy format to lose even more quality, all just so I could use the music like I want to. Honestly, it would be a lot easier to just obtain the music illegally, because I'm not gonna run out and buy an iPod or sit at my computer all day. To be honest, I've decided to stick to CDs for now.

    To keep the ease of use and freedom we already have with music, we have to recognize this DRM for what it is: a power grab. Anybody with half a brain can see it is pretty much just as easy to share music you rip off a CD as it is to share music you've downloaded. Whether you consider the DRM a hassle or not, there is no doubt that you are losing control you once had. Why would you want to pander to these people and their anti-consumer goals?

    The way I see it, the music labels themselves are hurting online legal music, because I would be buying singles and so on, if I didn't get less rights and more hassle out of it. As far as I'm concerned, they can just not have my money, you know? I'm not going to encourage what they are doing. Hurting the iTunes music store or this kind of locked up DRM business model doesn't seem so bad.

    As for the people cracking these DRM schemes, well, its not necessarily illegal, depending on how free of a nation you live in. It's hard for me to see it is inherantly unethical either. It's not like the music is being being taken without paying.

  30. Wow by ad0gg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is simply amazing slashbotters saying this guy shouldn't be a hero because he violated a EULA click license. Is it april 1st already?

    --

    Have you ever been to a turkish prison?

  31. Hur Hur Hur, private key="secret" by ebyrob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...The client could then decrypt the song using its private key...

    And uh, where exactly is this private key going to be hidden on a users own machine that they can't find it? This is exactly the fundamental flaw of DRM everyone keeps talking about. If the client can decrypt it, the client can be hacked. For software clients this is no longer even a question. For hardware clients, we're just not sure yet ... but the cost would be significant even if it did work.

    Note: Things like Palladium which would try to take away a user's "root access" to their system *might* create a platform that could make hard DRM possible, but that's all thoery until it hits the field. (And it's questionable whether customers will swallow that particular cactus bulb. Some folks speculate the only reason many products *cough*DVD*cough* survive today is because customers know they can get around supposed restrictions.)

  32. I'll bet they do by flimflam · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I doubt that they really care that much if you rip off the RIAA or whatever, but what they do care about is getting you to build up a library of music that can be played back on your iPod and no other portable player. They have always said that they didn't expect to make money on the ITMS, that it was to encourage people to buy iPods. Well, what better way to encourage them to let them build up large libraries of music that must be played back on an iPod?

    Well, that's my theory, anyway.

    And I'm never wrong.

    ;-)

    --
    -- It only takes 20 minutes for a liberal to become a conservative thanks to our new outpatient surgical procedure!
  33. Re:As a record store owner. by Max+Threshold · · Score: 3, Insightful
    And if you're smart, you'll even buy it back from him after he uploads it!

    The used music store in my town is thriving. People buy used CDs, "listen to them" for a while, and then sell them back for a fraction of what they paid. The store makes money over and over again on the same merchandise, and even more money when people find music they like and keep the CD. And it's all perfectly legal! For the store owner, anyway. (And for now...)

  34. Re:This Is NOT to Be Applauded by Belial6 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "You know what you are getting when you buy songs from iTunes, DRM encryption that ties the song to you."

    And Rosa Parks knew what she was getting into when she refused to give up her seat on the bus. Knowing that your are going to have your rights violated by a business does not mean that you have no right to complain. Your not suggesting that Rosa Parks should have moved to the back of the bus because |She knew what she was getting into| are you?

    "Creating these hacks is really like taking the silverware and plates out of a restaurant when you know you are really paying just for the food."

    No, it is like taking the onions off your burger when you know that the menu shows the burger WITH onions.

    "It's so hypocritical how slashdot really realy really hates GPL violators, but cheers something like this."

    This is nonsensical. Most people that hate GPL violators, hate them because the GPL violators are performing the same act as the DRR (Digital Rights Restriction) groups are doing. Building their projects on the shoulders of those that came before, then trying to stop anyone else from doing the same. It's not about honoring or breaking a license. It's about submitting an idea to society, then trying to control the idea, even if it means that part of our culture is lost to future generations.

    Fox Movie Channel tells why DRM/DRR is a catastrophy in the making.. "Sadly, 90% of films made during the silent era are gone, due to neglect or chemical decomposition. 50% of films made before 1950 have suffered a similar fate." Much of our cultural history was lost. Now that we have ways for millions of people to help stop this from happening again, DRR shows up, and we are faced with it all happening again.

  35. Re:More power to you, Jon! by rokzy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >Whatever happened to not patronizing companies/vendors/services you fundamentally disagreed with?

    people have been broken. they are weak and without principles.

    that's why most refer to themselves as "consumers" these days.

  36. Re:More power to you, Jon! by Spoing · · Score: 4, Informative
    1. Anyone that gives me back my legal rights, is someone who deserves encouraging.

    A tip for you and others just in case you didn't know about this company.

    --
    A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
  37. Getting technical with the law... by julioody · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why are people associating the fact that he's publishing "exploit" code with a crime? It's a crime to use it, to cause damage (which in most cases it's assumed, not proved), not to have or publish it. Or am I wrong? What's the difference between his site and, e.g: packetstorm? Isn't it numbers? Last time I checked, France was doing this kind of thing. I didn't know that USA was doing the same. I sell a licensed gun to you in a shop, taking all the necessary legal considerations. You go out and shoot somebody. Who's the criminal? (and who's to tell that the analogy is incorrect? it's not illegal to download code)

  38. Re:Thanks! by ad0gg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah reasonable like being able to sell the music your purchase, or running on any other device besides an ipod. Thats fair and reasonable. If apple goes bankrupt, there will be no way for me to get my music onto another computer,ala all those guys who bought DIVX movies. Thats very fair. I love all these post supporting apple, but when Napster gets cracked there was not one highly modded post saying what the guys did was wrong. You apple fan boys are a bunch of hyprocrites.

    --

    Have you ever been to a turkish prison?

  39. DRM threatens everybody by idlake · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Every time this gets cracked, it hurts online legal music.

    No, it only hurts schemes that rely on DRM. It doesn't hurt on-line music sales that don't rely on DRM.

    After all, we can't just NOT BUY THE SONGS if we don't like the DRM, right?

    The existence of DRM still threatens me because as long as people erroneously believe that they can make DRM work, they will be trying to put all sorts of bogus technological protections in my hardware.

    So, I don't buy DRM'ed music, but I still consider it very important, and applaud, that people break the hokey DRM schemes that companies try to build business models around.

  40. Re:More power to you, Jon! by Kadin2048 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    If you don't like the terms music purchased on the iTunes music store is sold under, don't buy it, don't use it, and don't subvert it.


    You certainly don't have to buy it, nor use it (especially since using without buying it would be stealing it), but frankly I don't think it's your place or anyone else's to tell people not to subvert it. People have a moral right, and perhaps a duty, to work to subvert things they think are unjust. And while I personally don't really feel that FairPlay is terribly unjust, I have a certain amount of understanding for those that do. If you want to argue morals, fine--but as someone who otherwise agrees with you, I take offense to the suggestion that people should not actively work against causes they find repressive.


    If people think it's wrong, they're going to do their best to subvert it (regardless of what 'it' is). And as long as they're doing it from countries where this subversion is legal (ones without DMCA-like laws, in the case of DRM) then ... as the article says, more power to them.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  41. Re:Maybe Apple doesn't really care if DRM is broke by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yet another round of the "Apple is secretly good" theory. Apple doesn't give a fuck about you, your rights, the RIAA, or anything else. They are interested in a business model which makes them money. They say bullshit to you (Rip, Mix, Burn, just not more than 5 times), they say bullshit to the RIAA, and they keep everyone satisfied enough to make money. If you think they are on your side then you are hopelessly naive.

    --

    In Soviet America the banks rob you!
  42. Re:Apple is the least of his worries... by 1u3hr · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The RIAA AND any band that is affected will gladly take up suit in their defense. This guy likes playing with nitro.

    Johansen's app doesn't help to steal music, but allows non-Mac users to BUY it from iTunes. Apple doesn't like it, but it's debatable if even they have been injured in a legal sense.

  43. Re:More power to you, Jon! by Gigs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This has nothing to do with "Congress" saving a business model.

    Yes it does. Their business model is based on "First Sale Doctrine" and that model is moot in a digital world where the cost of reproduction is esentially zero. And so they are attempting to create new laws in congress so that they can sustain their business model. I believe Robert Heinlein put it best:

    There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit.

    The copyright owners own the content, period, and get to decide how it's used, by whom, and under what conditions, whether you like it or not.

    Wrong! Try reading the Constitution sometime. Once a work is published it is by its very nature a public work. They government grants the origiator a limited time copyright and with it come certain restictions and allowances. The inablity to resell or otherwise use the work in personal ways is beyond the scope of the granted copyright. These technologies are attempts to add restrictions to these works so that they become the sole distributor and "Second Sale" and personal use become impossible.

    They don't have to encrypt the music. Apple is well within its rights to sell the music in the ways it sees fit on its own service.

    Yes they are, and I am well within my rights under the constitution to place that music on phonogragh, tape, eight track, cd and any and all music playing devices I own.

    Additionally, this argument is worthless, because even if it was encrypted, you'd be on the side of arguing that it's ok to break the encryption.

    If GM sold cars with that only accepted gas from GM gas pumps and I removed their gas tap and replaced it with a standard gas tap, would I be breaking the law?

    If you don't believe in copyright, licenses, or "trade secrets"

    This isn't about doing away with copyrights and licenses completely. Its about returning to what copyright laws original intent was "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times, to authors and inventors, the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries" and not to line the pockets of the middle men over and over again.

    Oh, I forgot, those things only apply to the things you want it to, not corporate interests.

    Please read the eighth section of the first article of the constitution I don't see anything in there about corporate interests. What I do see is the promoting of scientific progress and useful arts which are clearly public interests.

  44. Re:Counting coup. by finkployd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The problem is not one of absolutes. 2048 bit RSA is not unbreakable, but as there are no known attacks other than brute force, the prospect is quite daunting, when the keys are handled properly.

    In DRM, the keys are not handled properly, making the prospect of compromise so laughably simple one wonders why even use RSA (I suppose to pretend there is some teeth to it).

    It is not a problem of computation, so Moore's law and large key spaces don't really apply. It is simply security by obscurity. Where did they try to hide the private key on my machine?

    Palladium actually gives DRM some teeth, assuming it really is tamperproof.

    The tit for tat can go on forever, but the companies may begin to question why they are blowing so much money on something so easily broken.

    Finkployd

  45. If they looked at it sanely by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 3, Interesting

    that wouldn't be the case. After all it's not as if other sales channels (ie physical CD's from physical stores) are or ever have been magically immune to copying.

    The key advantage to online sales is cutting out a lot of middle men and the convenience to customers that allows them to buy when the desire is there rather than having to go to a shop. IE they can reduce the cost of distributing their merchandise and increase it's accessibility and value to customers.

    The labels are insane for buying into this DRM snake-oil. It will never be significantly effective and the degree to which it is defective inevitably makes the very product they are selling less valuable to the paying consumer.

    On average I used to buy 3+ CDs a month. When they came out with "copy controlled" CDs that would not work with my Network Walkman (or laptop, or Xbox etc) I simply stopped buying any CDs thus afflicted (with the single exception of Radiohead's "Hail To The Thief" as I was seeing them in concert and thought it would be good to know the album properly beforehand). Fortunatly there are still some labels who haven't gone down this road but I am buying far less now.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  46. FOUL: "Boxen" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Two-minute penalty.

  47. Re:Apple is the least of his worries... by soft_guy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    WIndows buyers can already purchase songs from ITMS using iTunes for Windows.

    What he is doing is helping people bypass Apple's terms of service on iTMS (i.e. no Fairplay DRM, no restrictions to 3 machines, etc.)

    --
    Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
  48. I also support Jon, but this is basically Offtopic by cgenman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't think Gwen Stefani is the fault of legacy in the recording industries. Gwen always said she wanted to be rick and famous. And when she was poor and playing small groups in clubs and fairgrounds, it was cute, sad... she said she wanted to be one of those annoying and famous people with her name and lights, but she basically lived out of the back of a van playing crappy gigs in traditional musician fashion. You had to empathize with her, because everyone knows musicians in that situation. And you have to admit, Tragic Kingdom had some original and interesting tracks on it.

    But Gwen is now exactly who she wanted to be. She has become the rich, famous, self-centered girl she always was, only now she's actually rich and famous. That which allowed her fans to empathize with her, and her with her fans, is gone. And in it's place are terrible covers of If I Were a Rich Man (I didn't think It's My Life was that bad), and vaccuous cameos in Kid Rock videos. I don't think this happened because she lost control over her music, so much as the change in lifestyle which comes with money made her lose connection with her audience.

    A similar problem struck Alanis Morisette. Radio overplay aside, Alanis had always composed music because she was unhappy. And her audience responded to this. Enough people responded, that soon she was rich, successful, and gave her the power to solve her problems and make herself happy. Which she did. And she lost the drive to make music. Eventually she found it again (she gives a great interview about this), but because she was no longer singing about being tortured, she lost the audience that had that connection with her.

    Most artists don't survive the transition from poor no-name slob to rich superstar simply because they sing about their experiences, and their experiences go from things everyone can relate to, to experiences very few people on the planet have. What would Bill Gates sing about that any of us here would connect to? Compiler woes? Kobain was highly relatable up until the end simply because he suffered the entire time. Dr Dre still raps about the kids in the hood and yelling at his grandma on the front porch, despite the fact that he owns million dollar mansions and essentially lives like an investment banker for talent.

    The point is that the problems with the music industry that you had pointed out are not so much with legacy, but money. Too much money and too much success will destroy pretty much any artist. Even overthrowing the big 5 wouldn't change that.

  49. Re:iTunes homebrew? by Baricom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know the AC was being funny, but he has a very valid point. People are not pirating music with PyMusique.

    Our friends at the RIAA want to stop the rampant copyright infringement, right? Here's how:

    1. Stop suing the people you want as your paying customers.
    1a. Stop suing little old ladies that may not be your customers, but generate massive public sympathy when covered in the media.
    2. Change iTMS and friends to do digital watermarking, instead of digital restrictions management.

    All of a sudden, everybody's happy! The RIAA keeps their income and can still go after the worst copyright infringers (after politely asking them to cease and desist), Apple sells more iPods because people like me are less worried about draconian DRM methods, society gets the fair use rights they are owed, and judges can finally focus on dealing with white collar criminals rather than thousands of 13-year-olds who are nothing but music fans.

  50. Yes, let's lump them together. by Kjella · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because, of course, the court cases that Jon went through (DMCA infringment involving DVD encryption) relate directly to DMA involved with iTunes. After all, DMCA is DMCA, right? Let's lump all the cases together.

    Using this tool might be a problem with Apples ToS and whatnot, but creating the tool is purely a legal issue. And that issue has been clearly settled under norwegian law. There is currently no norwegian law prohibiting you from creating a tool to break any copyright protection mechanism. You have the right to access any "secret" key in your hardware or software. That is why he can do so with impunity. Apple could sue, but they would lose as the law stands today. The public prosecutor knows it and won't do it.

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    1. Re:Yes, let's lump them together. by jpetts · · Score: 5, Informative

      Then why did they do it in the first place?

      Because it took the first case to set the precedent. Until then the law hadn't been tested. Now it has.

      --
      Call me old fashioned, but I like a dump to be as memorable as it is devastating - Bender
    2. Re:Yes, let's lump them together. by Ryeng · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "There is currently no norwegian law prohibiting you from creating a tool to break any copyright protection mechanism. You have the right to access any "secret" key in your hardware or software."

      That might be about to change. A new law has been suggested in Norway, making it illegal to copy protected cds. Copying non-protected cds would still be legal. However there has been a lot of heat against this law; politicians have protested against it, consumers have protested against it, and most of the major labels operating in Norway have stated that they do not support such a law.

    3. Re:Yes, let's lump them together. by motherball · · Score: 4, Interesting

      yes, I have several sticks of PC133, but why the hell would anybody want them?

      This is the most classic display of public 'Disobeyance of Authority'. DVD-jon is like an evangelist or something. iTunes, I dont believe is the target, nor were the MPAA when he cracked DeCSS. Its more of classic CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE. I mean, something has to be done here. I'm not talking in the near future, but the slightly more distant. People have to stand up against the copyright enforcers. I mean, that's what we're here for right? We love linux, We love not getting told what to do constantly because we are smart enough to think for ourselves.

      DRM and iTunes or Microsofts or anybody's is becoming a ****ing nuisance. Digital technology just enables people to do this stuff. Its the way things are, and there will come a time when we are really going to have to confront intellectual property and its owners instead of just pissing around and wondering if Apple Legal are going to send him a letter tommorrow or not.

      He can get away with it, so he's doing it. To force their hand. To force all of our hands eventually. I mean, checkout what Lessig is doing. Checkout the Creative Commons and what it really means. We have to be free to do this stuff eventually.
      Or else the world is going to fall into contradiction.

      which I spose it is, .. or isn't in any given period of time....

      read this site:

      http://www.downhillbattle.org/itunes

    4. Re:Yes, let's lump them together. by BobTheLawyer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But he isn't just "attacking" his own hardware or software; he's logging onto iTunes through his own software in violation of the terms of service which he agreed when he created his account. Most jurisdictions have a criminal offence covering "unauthorised access to computer systems" - does Norway really not?

      And he is surely acting in breach of his contract with iTunes, albeit this would be a civil rather than criminal matter. Would Norway not consider this a contract law claim?

  51. Re:Umm I payed for the song by morcego · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Looks like people really doesn't understand Copyright.

    You didn't pay for the song. You didn't buy the song. You payed for the right to listen to it, one the media/format provided.

    Several people have quoted the "First Sale" right/law. Guess what ? When you buy a CD, you are not only paying for the songs, but also for the physical media. You buy the media, and pay for the right to listen to the music (that is why you can't give copies to others). Since there is no way to sell the media (CD) without the music, the first sale right applies, indirectly, to the songs. Erasing the midia or changing it in any other way will decaracterise(?) the product, changing it into something else.

    I hate the DMCA, RIAA and DRM as much as every other slashdoter, but barking at the wrong door isn't helping.

    --
    morcego
  52. BHA SAGAN?!?! NO! Crystal Quest Sound EFX ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Not true at all!

    Sosumi PREDATES system 7,and predates powerpc "BHA" sagan, in fact it is from a system 6 3rd party video game apple stole it from !!!

    If you read all the posts in the thread before commenting you would have learned that!

    Poermac 75000 debut !?!? No!

    The powerPC mac that shipped well after Sosumi debuted in system seven and years after Sosumi SHIPPED in "Crystal Quest" game for Mac !!!

    Sosumi was a sound resource stolen from a game released over a year earlier called "Crystal Quest" a game for system 6.

    http://www.whatisthe2gs.apple2.org.za/the_fairwa y/ game_pages/crystal_quest.html

    The sound was stolen by apple and then renamed Sosumi and placed into System 7.

    Facts are facts.

    And dirty lies are sometimes trivial to prove. Any copy of Crystal Quest will show how correct I am.

    Patrick Buckland never did sue apple over the sound effect. (He was the game author)

    That game had lots of cool sound effects by the way.

    The best was the sound for winning a level it was a comical "Ahhhhh!" sound.

    Why is it that 6 people posted five different fake origins of the Sosumi story tonight and I alone seem to know the damned truth? Sheesh! At least i TRIED to educate people this time. (six times no less). Someone else will have to carry the torch. I am getting tired of trying to correct all the misinformation and anon posters have a limit to how many factual corrections they can post in 24 hours (10 corrections maximum).

    The only reason I am trying to educate people again and again is becasue NO ONE is reading the -1 posts and some fool keeps modding these facts down for no reason.

    1. Re:BHA SAGAN?!?! NO! Crystal Quest Sound EFX ! by JReekes · · Score: 5, Informative
      in fact it is from a system 6 3rd party video game apple stole it from !!!
      Dear Anonymous Coward,

      "Stolen" is a strong word with specific legal meaning. If the sound originates from the game (and I'm not actually questioning it), I can readily see it as fair use, considering the related lawsuits and legal precedence, but I'm not a lawyer. Janet Jackson sampled my Mac system sound, and used it in one of her songs. My startup sound for the Mac was also used in the movie Jurassic Park (when they rebooted the park's computers).

      Furthermore, if my ears are correct (and they usually are) one of the sounds in that game was "stolen" from Peter Gabriel.
      And dirty lies are sometimes trivial to prove
      If you weren't being so juvenile, you might be more persuasive. Try removing the hyperbole and begin using proper grammar.
      I alone seem to know the damned truth?
      You, alone, know the truth? Well, I'm responsible for Sosumi, the System 7 beeps, and the startup sound (which all remain in use today). I don't actually remember where or how I obtained the original sound. Most of them I created such as the startup sound and others, some I obtained such as the monkey sound that made by a friend's wife.

      Personally, I felt having my startup sound used (or "stolen" in your words) by Steven Spielberg to be a form of flattery.

      Are you a representative of Mr. Buckland? What is your interest in this matter? I'd like to hear from him instead.
  53. Re:Apple is the least of his worries... by copper · · Score: 4, Informative

    According to a CNET article I read on this, only a linux version will be released (see last paragraph here. They are explicitly NOT releasing a windows version this time, presumably to minimize any antagonization of Apple by limiting it to such a small target audience that doesn't have "sanctioned" options to shop on iTunes.

  54. Interestingly enough by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 5, Informative

    Prior to the iTunes 4.7.x breakage (I don't mean the recent breakage, I mean the anti-Hymn breakage), Hymn would leave all identification info in any files it unprotected. In essence, the files were (lightly) watermarked.

    With iTunes 4.7, Apple changed it so that watermarked but unprotected files wouldn't play.

    The solution? Remove the watermark.

    By breaking the ability to use iTunes music fairly (for example, in a device other than an iPid), Apple essentially forced the authors of Hymn to make their software more suitable to piracy.

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
    1. Re:Interestingly enough by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually, while there were some discussions on whether hymn should do that, hymn now can create decrypted, watermarked, and playable-on-4.7.x AACs. The watermark is still there.

  55. A lawsuit for what? by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Basically the worst they can do is claim a TOS violation and not let him (or anyone using standalone clients) use the server.

    You can't sue someone for connecting to a public server, especially if the intent of use is perfectly legal. You pay for a song, then what does it matter how it is transferred?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  56. exactly true by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Moreover, and this is nearly as bad as the practical difficulties of dealing with "secure" hardware the user has complete access to, it's designed by a company with a timetable and a budget.

    The best minds in the world fuck up cryptography and security when they have decades of time to work and peer all the review they can handle.

    Along comes a company that wants to do DRM. They could do use a very strong cipher but the chip that does that costs $0.05 instead of $0.03. They could open it up to peer review but they want it secret and they want it by the end of next quarter. They could have the code audited for security but that would take an expensive consultant.

    Whoops. Now the cipher can be brute-forced a few years down the road. Whoops, their implementation drops bits of the key when the user does a chosen-plaintext attack. Whoops, there's a buffer overflow in in the firmware of the DRM chip. Now it can be reprogrammed to dump the unencrypted audio stream onto the hard drive.

    Big business is never going to change the way it thinks. Their decisions will be based on what will give them good margins this quarter and next, not what will keep them secure for years to come. DRM is in a terrible position because it has to go in consumer electronics, where these pressures are at their worst.

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  57. Obligatory "All your bases..." remark by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 3, Funny

    Steve J.: What happen ?
    iTune Dept: Somebody set up us the PyMusique
    iTune Dept: We get signal.
    Steve J.: What !
    iTune Dept: DVD Jon website turn on.
    Steve J.: It's you !!
    DVD Jon: How are you gentlemen !!
    DVD Jon: All your iTune are belong to us.
    DVD Jon: You are on the way to bankruptcy.
    Steve J.: What you say !!
    DVD Jon: You have no chance to survive make your time.
    DVD Jon: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....
    iTune Dept: Captain !!*
    Steve J.: Break out every 'LandSharks'!!
    Steve J.: You know what you doing.
    Steve J.: File suit.
    Steve J.: For great PROFIT.

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  58. Re:Apple is the least of his worries... by masklinn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No, they are releasing only Linux version because the current PyMusique needs a C++-coded library (linked to the base Python code) and since they're dev'ing under Linux they don't want to bother making it compile under windows (looks like the guy who's doing that lib didn't manage to).

    So they're basically telling everyone "we're not releasing a Windows version, if a Windows hacker finds what we did wrong with our C++ code, no problem with us and more power to him"

    There is no antagonization issue here, they just don't care about that

    --
    "The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
  59. Re:iTunes homebrew? by mvdw · · Score: 5, Insightful
    To stop piracy, the RIAA has to add value to the CD. For example:

    Include with the CD a one-time-use download link for cell-phone ringtones.

    Include with the CD a DVD of video clips.

    Include with the CD a CD of watermarked MP3s, at high bitrate.

    Include with every purchased CD a sticker of the band or whatever.

    The question is, though, does the RIAA want to stop piracy, or does the RIAA want to sell more records? The RIAA should be concentrating more on the latter than the former, IMO. That's where the money is; it doesn't really matter from an economic standpoint how much piracy there is, as long as they are selling the records, however from a dogmatic and philosophical point of view RIAA is in the business of "protecting its product". Where portection equates to restriction on consumers, and they wonder why consumers don't buy as many CDs as they used to (not to mention the number of new CDs released is dramatically falling).

  60. So Gandhi was wrong... by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Funny

    There actually *is* civilization in Europe!

  61. Precedent and common law by sangdrax · · Score: 4, Informative

    To elaborate on this, the 'precedent' system in which past rulings form a legal ground for deciding future cases is part of common law, which as the link indicates is generally found in English speaking countries.

    The rest of Europe, including Norway, basically uses civil law, in which in the end only the written law counts.

  62. He doesn't access the system nor has he a contract by bterzic · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Ah but he doesn't. Log onto iTunes that is. Someone logs on with a legitimate account and then he reverse engineers some protocols/crypto/specs producing a tool that is _capable_ of logging onto iTunes.

    Assuming (and I wouldn't even dare to hazard whether this is or isn't so) it is illegal to acces iTunes with "unauthorized" software they'd need to have a log of _him_ connecting to the service. As for "breaching" his contract with iTunes, who says he actually engaged in one by making use of their services.

    It's like someone built a very large wall with 1 door in it, offering a service to people who want to look at what's behind the wall and making those people use that door (i.e. Apple). Then someone else comes around, looks at the wall (or listens to stories of people describing the wall) and says: "Well, here is this periscope like contraption, that you can use to look over the wall if you should choose to."

    But of course, IANAL.

  63. Re:Except one thing... by freerangegeek · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Stop supporting? Lock out? The old versions of iTunes still play music no problem, they only wont' allow you to buy new music at the iTMS. The updates to iTunes are free. The visible interface wouldn't change, and it's a desktop app not the OS. Need I go on?

  64. Re:iTunes homebrew? by ManxStef · · Score: 3, Insightful
    To stop piracy, the RIAA has to add value to the CD. For example...
    How about just selling it for a reasonable price to start with?