Filed under: iTS
DVD Jon breaks free of iTunes DRM
Today's Times Online reports that DVD Jon has introduced new software that allows you to break iTunes DRM and play back your iTunes purchases on any device. Apparently this new anti-DRM software works with an unsual analog-hole. It replays songs in fast-forward and copies the audio track. The Times articles says that this tool can convert about two hundred tracks per hour. More info is at the DoubleTwist site. At the moment the software is Windows only, but an OS X version is promised soon. Cool and possibly illegal stuff.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike said 11:49AM on 2-20-2008
Meh, I'd don't think I'd use this because if it's using an analog hole it must be reencoding the music back to digital which means loss of sound quality. Only way I'd use it is if there were to be a method that is all digital. But hopefully it won't matter and the NY Times speculation is right, and that Linkin Park event will be used to announce 100% DRM free iTunes tracks.
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serenity said 11:50AM on 2-20-2008
Transcoding...? Sounds like it re-encodes the tracks.
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krye said 11:53AM on 2-20-2008
Yes, and you lose 5% in quality in the process.
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dan said 12:04PM on 2-20-2008
There are packages available from the hymn forum (google it!) which will deencrypt these files without loss of quality, though they are also currently windows only.
As far as legality goes, provided you only do this for personal use, this would be a grey area akin to making cassettes. Apple's adoption of DRM free tracks on the Itunes store make their arguments against DRM removal extremely weak.
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Carlos Fonseca said 12:12PM on 2-20-2008
This Double Twist thing seems to have the sending tracks to friends in mind, so it's not personal use, right?
Neil Cochrane said 12:19PM on 2-20-2008
How many days does apple have to put together a new version of FairPlay before the studios can choose to pull their content?
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Russell said 12:26PM on 2-20-2008
1. This software doesn't "break" any DRM any more than burning to a CD and ripping does.
2. There is nothing new or unusual about this in a technical sense.
3. To recap, all this does is take the process of burning/ripping, remove the need for physical media (speeding things up in the process since you don't have to wait for actual burning) and put a nice GUI on it. Of course it plays it in "fast forward"; have you ever ripped a CD at 1x speed?
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h8rain said 12:52PM on 2-20-2008
See that is what I was thinking. Now if it could break the video DRM, I would be more interested, because as of right now, I have to use my Apple TV to play videos on my TV.
I would be nice if we could make DVDs from our bought shows. Not sure how that is much different from burning an audio CD.....
Bob S. said 12:32PM on 2-20-2008
Um, in either MP3 or AAC -- your only two iTunes Store options -- you've already lost the quality. Going from digital to analog to digital through this method shouldn't particularly cause any further quality loss than the standard trick of burning the DRMed tracks to a CD and then reripping them, which falls into Mike's "all digital" solution. And it takes significantly less time and doesn't waste CDs, which will outlast the cockroaches come armageddon.
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Macskeeball said 3:48PM on 2-20-2008
No, as far as music is concerned the iTunes store only sells AAC in two forms: with and without Apple's FairPlay DRM.
Ian Gendel said 12:38PM on 2-20-2008
This has existed for years. The program TuneBite on windows also does this both for Windows media Audio/Video and iTunes Audio/Video. TuneBite also plays the songs 2-4 times as fast when it's recording so you can do a lot of songs in an hour. It's nothing new. I have known about the rerecording technique since way back when napster was not legal. I used to use Goldwave on Windows to record files while they played streaming over the internet or playing from a DRM'ed source, using the soundcard itself to "break" per say, the encryption.
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Wheels said 12:42PM on 2-20-2008
It's basically a modern day example of high speed dubbing.
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Rob said 1:11PM on 2-20-2008
For a Mac program that also makes DRM free copies of your legally purchased iTunes music using the analog hole, see DRM Dumpster. ( http://www.burningthumb.com/drmdumpster.html )
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DrWho said 1:36PM on 2-20-2008
Simple, just don't buy music downloads that contain DRM, there are plenty of options available now. iTunes+, Amazon, eMusic. Hell even just buy the CD and rip it.
This rates a big meh from me too.
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Justin said 2:31PM on 2-20-2008
I think you guys are missing the big picture.
This application is meant for you to go "I have all these songs from all these different places (CD's, iTunes, other digital downloads) and I want them all to work on this one device. Take care of this problem for me with the click of a button."
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mare said 2:56PM on 2-20-2008
I like there iPhone screenshots.
http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Download/SorrySteve.dt
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