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PlayFair - Stripping AAC DRM
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Excuse me, Oh God of Macintosh
Didn't mean to insult you, your highness. Since you are all knowing and have never needed any help with any software and refuse to give help, why are you even monitoring this forum?
It's beneath you.
Logoff and go watch Star Wars for the thousandth time while wondering what it'd be like to kiss a girl.
Didn't mean to insult you, your highness. Since you are all knowing and have never needed any help with any software and refuse to give help, why are you even monitoring this forum?
It's beneath you.
Logoff and go watch Star Wars for the thousandth time while wondering what it'd be like to kiss a girl.
sjk said:
"Or maybe the movie industry should only allow for a certain number of viewings of a DVD before the DVD is no longer viewable?"
http://www.flexplay.com/dvds.html
"For us legal users, we need direction as to what we are buying, and what technology may provide to users beyond the T&C's."
I was ready to buy from the iTunes store the week it opened. Credit card out, iTunes running, and then I decided against it. When I looked at the restrictions on how the downloaded music could be used and at the noticeable lower quality of the files, I wondered why I should pay $0.99 for one title and spend resources downloading the file, only to be restricted from using it in a fair manner. So I just continue buying CDs and copying them into MP3 files; I can make copies of those files and put them on a non-Apple MP3 player. I also check for the non-RIAA affiliation of the artists before buying, although RIAA labels are hard to avoid. Copy protection schemes are still more annoying than buying from RIAA companies.
"But secretly I hoped that there would be a program down [the] road that would allow me to gain the rights to the music, even if Apple and their publishers don't fully agree. There is something called the fair use doctrine."
There's also something called "your music isn't so good that I must buy it." Some of the things being sold as music these days are pretty bad, and the high prices of these CDs benefit the RIAA instead of the artists. Some of the best music CDs can be found in the discount bin at your local Best Buy store. I have a collection of Tim Janis music that I bought after he came to town and was selling CDs after the performance. You'll find that many independent artists sell CDs at prices lower than those sponsored by the RIAA. You can even find some fairly good musicians right in your backyard.
arogge said:
I've read stuff like this time and again. I think that the reality check here is that the music you're calling bad sells. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, good music is in the ear of the listener. If your local music store doesn't have music you like, then you don't buy from them. If iTMS doesn't have music you like, then you don't buy from it. Enjoy your music and let others enjoy theirs. Don't be an old fuddy-duddy, crying about how all the new music is cr*p.
Finally. Now I'll Buy Songs
I've always thought the iTunes store was cool but hated the idea of buying something I couldnt fully control. Would you buy a toaster oven that needed to contact the internet each time it toasted something to make sure you werent toasting somebody ELSE'S food? Certainly not.
So I have never bought anything there. But with this program, the song is mine again, and I dont have to re-register and un-register to play it on my own and my wife's computers. Hats off to PlayFair, and at least in my case, the money Apple will make because it exists.
I've always thought the iTunes store was cool but hated the idea of buying something I couldnt fully control. Would you buy a toaster oven that needed to contact the internet each time it toasted something to make sure you werent toasting somebody ELSE'S food? Certainly not.
So I have never bought anything there. But with this program, the song is mine again, and I dont have to re-register and un-register to play it on my own and my wife's computers. Hats off to PlayFair, and at least in my case, the money Apple will make because it exists.
coolsoldier said:
Unless you are running Windows with iTunes, then no iPod is required. Someone needs to fix this for OS X users without an iPod. Where can that key be found?
Anyone?
RIP said:
IIRC, the key is stored in the hidden file /Users/Shared/SC Info/SC Info.sidb, but apparently it is different from the way the key is stored on windows and the iPod (so PlayFair can't read it).
RIP said:
A little bit of playing around with "lsof" (list open files) in the terminal. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who's found it though. It's just that for some reason it doesn't work right with PlayFair.
"I think that the reality check here is that the music you're calling bad sells."
It sells partly because it's sponsored and controlled by the RIAA.
"Don't be an old fuddy-duddy, crying about how all the new music is cr*p."
I just don't like the music industry being influenced by an organization like the RIAA, and anything I might consider buying from the iTunes store would be things that can't be found on standard CDs or tapes. Downloading the purchased files and having to fix them afterward is too much of a hassle. The iTunes store is a good idea, but I'm not really interested in the Internet music fad. If I like some music, I'll buy at least one entire album to support the artists. I don't buy an album for only one title on it.
RIP said:
As I've already noted, the app QTConvert uses the key to convert the Protected AAC songs into AIFF music files, which can then be re-encoded to AAC with iTunes. A minor annoyance, but it works without the iPod...
That is entirely different than the process PlayFair uses, and if you re-encode the files after conversion you _will_ use quality. Any application that programatically uses QuickTime can convert .m4p to .aiff (This includes such apps as toast 5 and cleaner as well). The reason that apps like PlayFair are better are because there is *no* quality lost while un-DRM-ing. iTMS AAC files are higher quality than any QuickTime AAC we could produce @ 128kbps with the same source due to the fact that Apple uses the Dolby Pro AAC codec, which is measurably better than the "Consumer" version included with QuickTime. So to maintain the highest possible quality with the lowest possible filesize, then this is the only way to go. Another option is to convert to aiff, and then to another lossless codec like flac. But flac will be considerably larger than the aac file, and doesn't play on the iPod...
BTW.. PlayFair .3 has been released.. and includes an OS X Cocoa GUI 8)
appleguru1 said:
While I realize that this process may reduce quality, I've done a double blind test with the m4p and the m4p-to-aiff-to-m4a with several files, and only one was I able to actually tell the difference between them.
Still, having an app that doesn't do any translation is better. Hopefully by the time they get to 1.0 they'll be using the key file that's system resident, rather than needing to go to the iPod...
I was wondering if anyone else has been able to get the GUI version to work.
I've tried, but it immediately quits. Running it from the Terminal app that's inside the Package Contents, it appears to be looking for a library that's in the original user's home folder
Anyone have any ideas? Is this a developer error?
I've tried, but it immediately quits. Running it from the Terminal app that's inside the Package Contents, it appears to be looking for a library that's in the original user's home folder
Anyone have any ideas? Is this a developer error?
This isn't anything new. There have been apps out there for some time now that do this. Honestly, what's the difference between this and burning your songs to CD and ripping? You lose all of your tags and it only works with songs that you have the license for. You own the songs so you should be able to do what you want with them, IMO.
Almost everyone in my office uses iTunes and we all listen to each other's music using the iTunes rendevous streaming. I'll never use another app for music again. I truly love iTunes and the music store. It's just frustrating that I can let everyone listen to the songs that I bring in on my CD's but can't let them listen to my iTunes purchases. That's pretty silly IMO. So when I have a song that I want someone to hear, I use the little ripper app and it's done. They are listening to a stream, not copying my song. What's the harm done?
I really like the iTunes licensing model because it's far more portable than Microsoft's. For instance, I recently bought the new Prince album direct from his website. The songs are all WMA and are protected, of course. If this had been an iTunes purchase, I could have simple had someone burn all of the .m4p files to CD for me to carry home (I don't have a cd burner on my work machine). When I get them home, I can listen to and burn using iTunes on my mac at home because it's authorized. I'm completely stuck with the Prince songs because the WMA licensing is tied to the hard drive. I can only ever listen to them on this machine and because I don't have a CD burner, I can't do any kind of ripping. I'm completely stuck. If this hard drive crashes, I have to buy the songs again.
Almost everyone in my office uses iTunes and we all listen to each other's music using the iTunes rendevous streaming. I'll never use another app for music again. I truly love iTunes and the music store. It's just frustrating that I can let everyone listen to the songs that I bring in on my CD's but can't let them listen to my iTunes purchases. That's pretty silly IMO. So when I have a song that I want someone to hear, I use the little ripper app and it's done. They are listening to a stream, not copying my song. What's the harm done?
I really like the iTunes licensing model because it's far more portable than Microsoft's. For instance, I recently bought the new Prince album direct from his website. The songs are all WMA and are protected, of course. If this had been an iTunes purchase, I could have simple had someone burn all of the .m4p files to CD for me to carry home (I don't have a cd burner on my work machine). When I get them home, I can listen to and burn using iTunes on my mac at home because it's authorized. I'm completely stuck with the Prince songs because the WMA licensing is tied to the hard drive. I can only ever listen to them on this machine and because I don't have a CD burner, I can't do any kind of ripping. I'm completely stuck. If this hard drive crashes, I have to buy the songs again.
iMeowbot said:Annoyances like this are why so many geeks carry something like a Leatherman everywhere
I kind of like all the extra wrapping, because it helps keep counterfeiters (the people the studios should really be hunting down) a step behind. Even if the quality of a fake pressing turns out to be reasonable, the idea that money is being shelled out to the wrong people really annoys me.
However, this does beg another question: why is the counterfitter able to produce & sell the product for significantly less than the original?
If CD's weren't overpriced, 99% of the motivation for piracy would go away. For example, is the true fair market value of a CD from a Pop Band from the mid 1960's really worth the same as the latest CD release?
The Pop Band's music I'm thinking of dates from 1967 - its now 37 years old. But current US Copyright Law says that the owning Record Company has exclusive rights to it through the year 2062 or longer. Yes, that's 95 years of protected rights.
If that seems a bit crazy, it is because it is. Copyrights used to only be for 28 years, but Big Business has successfully lobbied Congress repeatedly to provide renewals and extensions. While there's good and bad to this, the reality is that new works don't enter the public domain now for 120 years, but when the 95-year old old works start to come "due" in 2018, we can expect heavy duty lobbying in the years prior to that to again push back the expirations so that corporations can continue to retain ownership for effectively "forever".
FWIW, I don't have a particularly huge concern with an entity retaining rights to works that they value...what ticks me off is when they abandon a work because they don't see it being profitable, and then block others from being able to use it.
(FWIW, isn't this pretty much exactly what Microsoft did with some Schools with Windows95 a few years ago? Blocked the reuse/redistribution of AbandonWare)
-hh
Definitely and beyond!
Here Here, -hh !!
We are in trouble again. This is just a tool (PlayFair). How you use it is what defines it.
However, read the latest about how the music industry is raising costs of the music YOU download LEGITIMATELY? Ironically, CDs on Amazon.com are less that the downloaded "album" from iTMS or other online music site.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0407downloading07-ON.html
This is just Like Sony and others to plan. The music industry is greed incarnate. Its one thing to make a profit, but entirely another with MAP (Manufacturers Authorized Pricing..aka price fixing...aka imaginary inflation). Monica Lewinsky's trial completely pun away the news about the federal courts slapping several music companies with price fixing. The music pundits had leveraged against discount chains like BestBuy for having low priced CDs (Tower Records and 'mom&pop' stores whined to music companies that they built the record companies and were afraid to be closed down by competition and low prices). Inventory would be contrained against big boxes like Best Buy unless they raised their prices.
Now we will see a repeat, but this time, Apple and Napster are the "Best Buys" and again, the musioc pundits are crying fowl to congress that the feds need to spend tax payer dollars on the piracy that is hurting the revenues of the Great American Export- Entertainment!
Anybody with a clue at any music companies here? Price CDs at $9.99 and no higher. Sales will go up.
-hh said:
Here Here, -hh !!
We are in trouble again. This is just a tool (PlayFair). How you use it is what defines it.
However, read the latest about how the music industry is raising costs of the music YOU download LEGITIMATELY? Ironically, CDs on Amazon.com are less that the downloaded "album" from iTMS or other online music site.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0407downloading07-ON.html
This is just Like Sony and others to plan. The music industry is greed incarnate. Its one thing to make a profit, but entirely another with MAP (Manufacturers Authorized Pricing..aka price fixing...aka imaginary inflation). Monica Lewinsky's trial completely pun away the news about the federal courts slapping several music companies with price fixing. The music pundits had leveraged against discount chains like BestBuy for having low priced CDs (Tower Records and 'mom&pop' stores whined to music companies that they built the record companies and were afraid to be closed down by competition and low prices). Inventory would be contrained against big boxes like Best Buy unless they raised their prices.
Now we will see a repeat, but this time, Apple and Napster are the "Best Buys" and again, the musioc pundits are crying fowl to congress that the feds need to spend tax payer dollars on the piracy that is hurting the revenues of the Great American Export- Entertainment!
Anybody with a clue at any music companies here? Price CDs at $9.99 and no higher. Sales will go up.
Yeah, the developer forgot to set deployment mode in XCode... I alerted him to this yesterday, and a few hourse later he posted a fix.. 0.3b GUI works fine
cyclonus5150 said:
Hunt around a little and you can find a WMP (protected WMA) unwrapper that will convert those into unprotected WMAs. Then you can move them around, burn them, whatever...
appleguru1 said:Yeah, the developer forgot to set deployment mode in XCode... I alerted him to this yesterday, and a few hourse later he posted a fix.. 0.3b GUI works fine
Great. Thanks!
Now if he can just access the system resident key in OS X...
TiBoi500 said:And where do we get this?
The site's down now, but it said in their FAQ that the data in the unprotected file is identical to the data in the original.