Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

PlayFair - Stripping AAC DRM

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,197
38,988
Source code for an application called Playfair has been released.

The application takes protected AACs from the iTunes Music Store and decrypts them into unprotected AACs. From the site:

It takes one of the iTMS Protected AAC Audio Files, decodes it using a key obtained from your iPod or Microsoft Windows system and then writes the new, decoded version to disk as a regular AAC Audio File. It then optionally copies the metadata tags that describe the song, including the cover art, to the new file.
Click to expand...

According to reader feedback, the application does work as described, allowing owners of purchased songs to convert their Protected AACs into UnProtected AACs. Due to the key-based system, users are not able to decode protected AACs from other individuals.

The application is presently only available as source code and requires compilation.
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2004/04/05/playfair-stripping-aac-drm/
Sh*t!

Macrumors said:
Source code for an application called Playfair has been released.

The application takes protected AACs from the iTunes Music Store and decrypts them into unprotected AACs. From the site:



According to reader feedback, the application does work as described, allowing owners of purchased songs to convert their Protected AACs into UnProtected AACs. Due to the key-based system, users are not able to decode protected AACs from other individuals.

The application is presently only available as source code and requires compilation.
Click to expand...



It will damage iTMS business and Europe release... F*ck with this!... :mad:
 
AmigoMac said:
It will damage iTMS business and Europe release... F*ck with this!... :mad:
Click to expand...
Nice little tool that saves you from burning to disk and then re-ripping, but I'm sure it's not going to make Apple or the RIAA happy...

I'm guessing first comes the DMCA lawsuit and then changes to the iTMS structure. More than likely this is going to result in more restrictive DRM in the long run...

I respect the philosophy behind the app, and really don't think you can stop stuff like this from being written, but this certainly is going to add strength to WMA (until it's also cracked).
 
Was only a matter of time. Very sad though :(

Hopefully Apple can quickly fix this vulnerability or it will hurt the online music stores.

You try and give people the option of a legal place to download music and some people just have to find a way to bring dishonesty into the mix.

Bill now I know why Longhorn is delayed--this took up some of your resources huh?
 
I think (if possible) Apple should sue the distributor of this source code. Or can this only be done if it is distributed as a working program, rather than just the source code?

This might also delay the European introduction of the iTunes Music Store. :(
 
This got me thinking about the motivation for obtaining unprotected files from your own purchased protected files. It is clearly a different motivation to downloading songs illegally.

The most obvious reason is to allow you to play your files somewhere you currently cannot, maybe on a portable player other than the iPod or on more of your computers than you are allowed, on a linux box or to share across your network. None of these strike me as a particularly wrong, obviously you are not meeting the restrictions of the sale but you are not doing anyting you couldn't do with a cd, except maybe playing on several devices at once.

There clearly could be a other reasons, such as wishing to share the music with friends or over p2p networks. This obviously goes against the principle of iTMS and will be damaging to the service. However until CDs are properly protected against this form of copying will it really cause any additional harm to the industry?

I wonder if this will have any effect on the role out of iTMS here in Europe, I guess it comes down to a trade off is it better for the record companies to sell more music this way and have some copied or not to sell it digitally? Personally I don't see iTMS being here in Europe for a while. Clearly UK music stores are up and running, so Apple must be making the store Europe wide (to some degree) the problem is then the licensing which will mean a lot of problems to iron out.
 
Is not illegal and will not affect iTMS

As noted on the web site, this tool only allows you to decode your own files. Fair Use, nothing more.

People will still download and pay to do so.

Individuals may share their decoded files via P2P.

If an individual shares copyrighted files they can apparently be prosecuted.

Let the courts decide whether sharing is legal or not, this is not a sharing tool. This tool is legit and legal.

No contest.
 
Hmm...

I just downloaded it and checked out the readme and install files. They don't mention any platform-specific instructions, so it looks like it'll work for OS X. Well, time to compile and find out :)

Edit: It looks like you can't use it on OS X, at least not without an iPod. Maybe it does, but I can't find any documentation online, and there's no MAN page installed. Ah well.
 
Stealing

If it is used for personal use only, I see no problem with it. But if it is used to share music then it's stealing. I hope people would just pay the 99 cents per song or at least rent music thru a subscription. That is fair.
 
This is just one of the fundamental (unsolvable) problems in computer science showing it's head again - If You Can Read The Data You Can Copy The Data. That's just the way it is - no ifs, no buts. All systems like Fairplay do is make it slightly more of a pain in the ass to do so.

Trying to make this sort of thing impossible is like trying to ban gravity. It tends to keep happening no matter what you do because it's a fundamental law.
 
Man, this sucks...

Aren't you "allowed" already to share WMA in p2p apps?
I mean, it can be done, right?
How come nobody complains about that?

All of the bad publicity Apple is gonna get now! :mad:
DAMN!
 
Well, it was only a matter of time. I wondered how long it would take the windows folks to figure out a way to decode the encryption. If you note everywhere on it says stuff about how you need Windows to do this.

The 3 - 5% of population that uses Apples aren't idiots either, but for some reason you don't see them figuring out how to crack iTunes MS DRM do you? Interesting.

I think it just reflects the current thoughts of the population at large. If you don't physically take an item, you're not stealing. A whole generation of kids is being brought up this way.

Right now the key is the one you bought with, but how long until you see keys being traded/zipped up with the songs?
 
I'm going to try that out.

I've bought music from iTMS and it really bothers me that I cant play those songs on my Linux System. I dont want to go through the hassle of burning to a CD and then ripping again.

I see no problem with this program. You're unprotecting your own songs for your own use. Even though you might want to use them on more systems than allowed, what does Apple expect you to do? Buy several copies of the same song? That would be idiotic.
You've already paid for the song, you should be able to listen to it when you want to, where you want to.
 
Agreed

foniks2020 said:
As noted on the web site, this tool only allows you to decode your own files. Fair Use, nothing more.

People will still download and pay to do so.

Individuals may share their decoded files via P2P.

If an individual shares copyrighted files they can apparently be prosecuted.

Let the courts decide whether sharing is legal or not, this is not a sharing tool. This tool is legit and legal.

No contest.
Click to expand...

Agreed, this is no different from ripping a CD, as a CD you had to physically posess the CD (Rights Management of a sort, I was forced to cart the physical media around with me) ripping broke that. Mind you, now that CDs can no longer be reliably ripped I don't buy them any more (I was burnt a couple of times with f*cking EMI and their unlabled CDalikes that won't play in computer or car CD players, I only listen to music from the computer or iPod now, and can't wait for an Apple Hi-Fi component to complete the set).

I don't see a problem other than the perceived possible affect by the RIAA - oh no, pure digital copies of compressed lossy songs! ;)

Given that it's distributed as source it is beyond 99% of people to figure out how to compile and use, I don't see it as having a large actual affect.

Now what I'd like to see is WMA also broken, just to level things out a bit :)

And on a final note, get iTunes out in Aus & NZ please.. I want to spend lots and lots of money buying music, it's been such a long time.

Cheers, Edward.
 
Trekkie said:
I think it just reflects the current thoughts of the population at large. If you don't physically take an item, you're not stealing. A whole generation of kids is being brought up this way.
Click to expand...
I know, it's frustrating. If I try to suggest that piracy of software or music is stealing, I just get a strange look and comments that suggests I'm crazy or something.
 
Why has this and QTFairUse been released only for Windows? I don't quite understand why the developers can't or won't make a Mac version. I have no use for it, since I don't use the ITMS (or Windows). I don't like either of these applications anyway, since I think they'll hurt Apple. By the way, the name appears to be a pun on FairPlay, the name of Apple's DRM system; I found that slightly funny.
 
Is there any difference between buying a CD, ripping it and putting the files on a P2P network and buying a song, stripping the DRM and putting it on a P2P network?

No, there isn't, only ripping a CD is still easier.

The music industry wants to prevent that we put a file out for sharing, which is a completely legitimate aim, as long as they do not make it too much of a hassle for us to use the song for legitimate purposes.

So they invented the DRM (which in case of the iTMS implementation seems to be a reasonable compromise), copy-protected CDs, and so on. Copy-protected CDs could be a real nuisance, preventing users from ripping their CDs and putting them on their iPods, but fortunately, Macs in general are not affected by it (I've ripped lots of copy-protected CDs on my Powerbook without a any problems).

As long as stripping the DRM is not easier than ripping a CD (which could not be easier, just but a CD in your drive and wait a few minutes) nothing changes fundamentally.
 
manu chao said:
Copy-protected CDs could be a real nuisance, preventing users from ripping their CDs and putting them on their iPods, but fortunately, Macs in general are not affected by it (I've ripped lots of copy-protected CDs on my Powerbook without a any problems).
Click to expand...
Copy-protected CDs are a lost cause for this very reason. They will never have the desired effect because they aren't really CDs and the copy protection does not work consistently across platforms (which is nearly impossible to do). The music industry needs to abandon the idea of copy-protected CDs and also rethink their entire distribution system, otherwise these kinds of things will continue to occur (and the music industry won't be able to stop it).
 
Analog Kid said:
...
I respect the philosophy behind the app, and really don't think you can stop stuff like this from being written, but this certainly is going to add strength to WMA (until it's also cracked).
Click to expand...
I presume you mean WMA rights/usage control. Well, this was cracked a while back. And I suspect every time Microsoft changes it, the new version gets broken rather quickly.
 
Re: It may be illegal

animefan_1 said:
The iTunes 'Terms of Sale'...

CONTENT USAGE RULES

"You agree that you will not attempt to, or encourage or assist any other person to, circumvent or modify any software required for use of the Service or any of the Usage Rules."

http://www.info.apple.com/usen/itunes/policies.html
Click to expand...
Since you can definatly back up and restore protected AACs, and you can play it on multiple compuyters and multiple MP3 players, and you can burn it onto CD-Rs, the need for cracking the protection on the AAC files seems not really needed for fair use.

Come to think of it, you could also record it to audio tape usimg line out on a computer.
 
Bear said:
Since you can definatly back up and restore protected AACs, and you can play it on multiple compuyters and multiple MP3 players, and you can burn it onto CD-Rs, the need for cracking the protection on the AAC files seems not really needed for fair use.

Come to think of it, you could also record it to audio tape usimg line out on a computer.
Click to expand...

It comes down to this. It is impossible to play iTMS songs on a Linux computer. Many potential mac users use (or will use) some combination of Macs and Linux PCs. You should be able to play songs on 3 computers, yet, you can't use them on Linux at all. And yes, I know you can burn and re-rip but that results in fairly significant quality loss. Until Apple releases a player thant can play iTMS files in Linux, you will continue to see this (and you'll see it even if they do release such a player, but not with the fervor or frequency).
 
compile?

so how would someone compile this? apparently it works in osx 10.3.3, according to one of the bug reports (mentions the app not correctly copying the album art to the finished file, in 10.3.3). i would like to try this, anyone lend help? or point me to help?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back