more on Apple's iPod code 'cracked'
David Farber <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.culture.people.interesting-people |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Begin forwarded message: From: Dan Shoop <[email protected]> Date: October 25, 2006 5:51:38 PM EDT To: [email protected], [email protected] Subject: Re: [IP] Apple's iPod code 'cracked' At 9:28 AM -0400 10/24/06, David Farber wrote: > Begin forwarded message: > > Jon Lech Johansen, affectionately known as DVD Jon, garnered > worldwide fame and notoriety when, at the age of 15, he cracked the > encryption scheme used by DVD. This allowed for DVDs to be copied > and played back on any device. > > Now Johansen claims he's mastered the inner workings of the iPod > and its FairPlay encryption technology, allowing him to remove many > of the restrictions Apple places on its users. > > http://www.smh.com.au/news/digital-music/apples-ipoditunes-code- > cracked/2006/10/24/1161455702584.html This article incorrectly states that music downloaded from iTunes can't be played on non-Apple MP3 players. Apple's downloaded tunes are encoded in AAC format, which itself isn't playable on most MP3 players. (If it were, and if the players supported the FairPlay DRM system then they could play them directly too.) To play them on players w/o such features simply first burn the tracks to CD and then follow the procedure you'd normally use for loading CD music onto your non-Apple MP3 player. Likewise the article is incorrect that iTunes and the iPod somehow prevents other markets for MP3 tracks. The iPod will happily play any other MP3s from other vendors. What it won't play is tracks recorded in closed DRMs, which should be seen as a good thing. Fairplay is a much more open system for DRMs. What DVD Jon should be unhappy about instead is that other parties use closed and highly restrictive DRM schemes that prevent them those tracks from playing anywhere that those closed DRM mechanisms are utilized. Then again they also don't let you own the music you've bought either ;) -- -dhan ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan Shoop AIM: iWiring Systems & Networks Architect http://www.ustsvs.com/ [email protected] http://www.iwiring.net/ 1-714-363-1174 "The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions." -- Claude Levi-Strauss ------------------------------------------------------------------------ iWiring provides systems and networks support for Mac OS X, unix, and Open Source application technologies at affordable rates.