Licensing FairPlay (Apple iTunes DRM)

[Hattig]

Screw Dvd Jon. He's a moron. iTunes is popular because it's a simplistic kick ass store. It's easy to use, and well organized. It has a great selection for a price cheaper than most CDs.

If he is a moron, what does that make you? Could you crack DRM schemes when you were 16? Can you do it now?

This is a useful fair use enabling technology. It will mean that iTMS purchased songs could be played on any player that has licensed Jon's work. It will mean that the iPod can play music from any store that has licensed Jon's work. This is a good thing for consumers, it opens up the market (assuming other companies license it).

This only happened because Apple wouldn't license Fairplay themselves. Imagine where the CD would be today if Philips had never licensed it. DRM makes a digital format operate like a physical format - Fairplay is Betamax versus PlaysForSure's VHS for example.

 

[Queso]

Apple should think realistically now about allowing legitimate Fairplay licensing.

Here in the UK, websites are being forced to use DRM by content providers. The only option currently available, thanks to Apple's pigheadedness, is Windows DRM. So Mac users are being increasingly locked out of web services such as live broadcasts, radio stations etc. simply because we don't use Windows. Give the content providers another solution with Fairplay licensing and maybe Mac users won't get so marginalised.

They may not have noticed in Cupertino, but Windows DRM is locking people into Windows just as effectively as Fairplay is locking people into iPods. Apple are allowing Microsoft to get a foothold in a market that Apple should own by now.

 

[revfife]

As bad or as good as this seems, it is not going to affect the everyday iTunes/iPod user. Who just wants to buy his/her music and be done with it. Itunes has proved to be a very successful model for this. This FairPlay will only affect those of us who bother with looking stuff up, Downloading new programs, Tweaking the properties, and Then readjusting all of our files.

Not something I see the masses interested in doing.

 

[twoodcc]

i'm not sure what to think. fair use is fair use i guess.

 

[iMeowbot]

IThis is a useful fair use enabling technology. It will mean that iTMS purchased songs could be played on any player that has licensed Jon's work.

That isn't what this product does, and if it did it would run straight up against EUCD, DMCA etc.

It will mean that the iPod can play music from any store that has licensed Jon's work.

That is what the product is intended to accomplish.

 

[gnasher729]

Would 'de-regulating' FairPlay in this way encourage owners of other players to buy from iTMS and would this extra revenue offset that losses from lower (potentially) from iPod sales?

Absolutely not, because this is not what is happening.

What is claimed here is a method of adding the "FairPlay" DRM to music from other stores than iTMS, so that companies other than Apple can sell music with DRM that can _only_ be played with iTunes or an iPod (that is, 80 percent of the market) instead of selling music with Microsoft DRM as they do now (which plays on the other 20 percent of the market).

As an example, the Beatles could use this to sell all their music on the Internet with DRM to iPod owners, without going through the iTunes Music Store. They could make more money that way; for the iTunes user or iPod owner there would be no difference.

 

[AdeFowler]

Who's going to buy this 'technology'?

My point is, that if for example Microsoft or Napster wanted Fairplay hacked, they'd have paid someone to do it long ago. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they'd love to sell iPod compatible tracks, but not by the back door.

 

[Swarmlord]

Who was asking why MS has to lockdown Windows with an absurd level of protection via WGA? Here is your answer.

If they only spent as much energy locking their browser security down as they did with WGA, there wouldn't be any spyware.

 

[hokka]

He's only trying to make a buck

What he's doing is not so bright, but that's what he's specialized in, crack DRMs, and he's old enough to want to make a buck or two, you can't blame him trying. Sure it's not a long term plan but like any full-on criminal, he will try to break into a bank before he get's caught (again) and send to prison - regardless how much people want to rally for him - it's not really legal (sure, flame me if you're a lawyer). Breaking into someone else's house and sell a copy of the key is not exactly bright not matter what you think about the house.

End of story, I hope he'll learn his lesson one day... but I doubt it. good luck but he won't survive the legal system.

 

[Queso]

Who's going to buy this 'technology'?

Creative for one. Mobile phone manufacturers too. Basically, anyone that wants to advertise their equipment as iTunes compatible.

And hokka, there is already precedent for this legally. Compaq reverse engineered the IBM BIOS back in the early 80s and kickstarted the IBM-compatible computer industry. They were able to prove that they hadn't hacked the BIOS, just got one team of people to find out exactly what it did and write a spec, then passed the spec to another completely different team who made a compatible chip from it. Providing Jon has also taken this approach, Apple will have a tough time winning the case.

 

[Kaafir]

Sick of ITMS

I'm freakin sick of the ITMS.

I love iTunes and my iPod, but purchasing music that can only be put on an iPod is crap. There may be a better player out later which I want to go to and then *poof* my ITMS purchased tracks are crap.

www.allofmp3.com

It's (significantly) cheaper.

It's better.

'Nuff said.

 

[iJaz]

A hacker who is trying to make money of his hacks is a bad hacker, I think.
He's not inovating he's just trying to make money on some one elses inovations.
It was cool to brake the cd protection and making the hack free, this ain't cool.

 

[Clive At Five]

Imagine where the CD would be today if Philips had never licensed it.

Who still uses CDs? hehe

They're large, clumsy, rigid, and prone to scratching. So are DVDs. And HD-DVDs/Blu-Ray. When are content providers going to get some brains and start licensing on read-only solid state? How many MB is an hour of decently endoded music? 256? We're talking a couple bucks on flash chips here.

Hehe... just a long-time vision of mine... which has yet to be realized. And I couldn't help but make fun of poor old CDs. They're going the way of the Cassette Tape. Who ever thought Mr "Scratch me and I'm useless" CD'son was a good idea.

-Clive

 

[JPark]

My roommate is a PC fanatic. He's an engineer, yet he still uses IE instead of Firefox for crying out loud. All of his purchased music is from MusicMatch, and he plays it on the cheapest player he could find.

He recently got a new computer and tried to get his MusicMatch songs to play on it. He has now devoted a couple hours every afternoon for 3 weeks to the project. In his weakened condition, I started showing him how my iTunes music could painlessly hop from computer to computer, and how if he used iTunes, he could stream all of my non-protected music. He was ready to cut his losses and switch to iTunes right there.

Unfortunately, iTunes songs won't play on his player so that was the end of it. There's no way he's paying more than $30 for a player, and there's no iPod that cheap. As a result, he'll never know how much better iTunes (and the rest of mac software) is. Apple had a chance to get their foot in the door, and instead they slammed his own door in his face.

 

[emotion]

They may not have noticed in Cupertino, but Windows DRM is locking people into Windows just as effectively as Fairplay is locking people into iPods. Apple are allowing Microsoft to get a foothold in a market that Apple should own by now.

Yeah this will leverage Zune sales too.

 

[iJaz]

I'm freakin sick of the ITMS.

I love iTunes and my iPod, but purchasing music that can only be put on an iPod is crap. There may be a better player out later which I want to go to and then *poof* my ITMS purchased tracks are crap.

www.allofmp3.com

It's (significantly) cheaper.

It's better.

'Nuff said.

AllofMP3 is exactly how all music selling sites should be. The possibility to choose exact what quality you want is great, no DRM is great, the price is of course also great.
If only the artists would get paid it would be perfect.

 

[AdeFowler]

Creative for one.

I doubt very much whether Creative would p*ss off Apple having just been given a $100m end of hostilities settlement.

How hard can Fairplay be to crack? If this guy can do it I'm sure most major software/hardware/telephone companies could find a way, but they choose not to. If they did, what would stop Apple from hacking WMA and basically declaring DRM dead?

 

[hokka]

Haeh????

dynamicvworking out the key from the lock and pass onto another locksmith to make an exact copy to open a house or allow others to tour your house for free is not wrong? gee, what's the point of the lock on you door? what's the point of any password on your keychain (access)?

Stop trying to fight DRM, ignore it or don't buy the crap in the first place

 

[emotion]

I'm freakin sick of the ITMS.

I love iTunes and my iPod, but purchasing music that can only be put on an iPod is crap. There may be a better player out later which I want to go to and then *poof* my ITMS purchased tracks are crap.

www.allofmp3.com

It's (significantly) cheaper.

It's better.

'Nuff said.

Not only is that site a pirate site but I personally know many people who run very small independent record labels that have stuff on there without permission.
Avoid these jokers at all costs.

There are legitimate drm-free places to buy digital music.

dynamicvworking out the key from the lock and pass onto another locksmith to make an exact copy to open a house or allow others to tour your house for free is not wrong? gee, what's the point of the lock on you door? what's the point of any password on your keychain (access)?

Stop trying to fight DRM, ignore it or don't buy the crap in the first place

It's a poor analogy because it's actually my door I'm trying to open (I bought the tracks).

Fair use!

AllofMP3 is exactly how all music selling sites should be. The possibility to choose exact what quality you want is great, no DRM is great, the price is of course also great.
If only the artists would get paid it would be perfect.

If you're going to "steal" music just use limewire or soulseek. Why pay someone to steal it for you? I don't understand.

 

[hokka]

AllofMP3 is exactly how all music selling sites should be. The possibility to choose exact what quality you want is great, no DRM is great, the price is of course also great.
If only the artists would get paid it would be perfect.

AllofMP3 is not doing too well now that VISA and Mastercard has blacklisted it, so download while you can before it's source of income is dead

 

[yojitani]

This guy's my hero. Not that I need any of this stuff, I just hate DRM with a vengence.

 

[iJaz]

My roommate is a PC fanatic. He's an engineer, yet he still uses IE instead of Firefox for crying out loud. All of his purchased music is from MusicMatch, and he plays it on the cheapest player he could find.

He recently got a new computer and tried to get his MusicMatch songs to play on it. He has now devoted a couple hours every afternoon for 3 weeks to the project. In his weakened condition, I started showing him how my iTunes music could painlessly hop from computer to computer, and how if he used iTunes, he could stream all of my non-protected music. He was ready to cut his losses and switch to iTunes right there.

Unfortunately, iTunes songs won't play on his player so that was the end of it. There's no way he's paying more than $30 for a player, and there's no iPod that cheap. As a result, he'll never know how much better iTunes (and the rest of mac software) is. Apple had a chance to get their foot in the door, and instead they slammed his own door in his face.

The Shuffle is $79 and will not cost $30 anytime soon, so I guess he's lost anyway.
This was an example when the price of the hardware was limiting, not the iTS incompatibility.

 

[Kelmon]

I'm in favour of this move. CDs were great (along with cassette tapes and LPs) because you could play them in any CD player and you could buy the CDs themselves from any shop. For some odd reason we don't get this with MP3 players and I do think that's anti-competitive. If I want to move to a different MP3 player or buy my music from another store to use on my iPod then that should be my choice and Apple should have to accept that. At the moment I am quite happy with my first iPod (aside from the frequent crashes when playing podcasts...) but if I decide to change to something else that is Mac compatible and beats the iPod then I don't want to have to re-purchase my iTunes music that I have bought. If DVD Jon has a way to allow reasonable consumer choice then FairPlay to him.

I have no wish to see Apple get walloped by the competition but the sort of consumer freedom that this offers should keep them honest since if they **** up then we can move some place else.

 

[hokka]

It's a poor analogy because it's actually my door I'm trying to open (I bought the tracks).

Fair use!

It's your track alright, but why is he selling the key to others so they can unlock your door as well?? like I said, he's trying to get rich via your house.

 

[iJaz]

If you're going to "steal" music just use limewire or soulseek. Why pay someone to steal it for you? I don't understand.

I didn't say I supported AllofMP3's way to do their shady business, I meant that legal downloading should be modelled like AllofMP3 AND that the artists should get paid.