DRM-Free Interface to iTunes

C.K. is gonna love this.

Infamously acquitted DVD hacker Jon Johansen has turned his attentions to making your music DRM-free. Not just any music - iTunes music.

Jon is once again challenging the DMCA and EUCD with PyMusique, what he calls the “fair” interface to the iTunes Music Store.  It’s essentailly a wrapper for the iTMS that bypasses the DRM. Jon says that the iTMS actually sells songs themselves without any DRM… that it gets added after you purchase it. You sign up for a PyMusique account (without clicking away all or your rights), preview songs, purchase them - just like you normally would in iTunes. As as added bonus, you can even re-download songs that were bought with PyMusique.

There’s a problem with his implied assertion that PyMusique doesn’t break the law. When I signed up for an iTMS account, I did read the fine print, and it says: “You will not access the Service by any means other than through software that is provided by Apple for accessing the Service.” You may not have read it, but you agreed to it when you opened your account too.

I admire Jon’s tenacity, but I just don’t see how this is going to fly with Steve Almighty. If you’re interested in taking a crack at it (pun intended), you better download the source code now before the Apple music mafia makes it disappear.