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dvdjon posts

Filed under: iTS

DVD Jon breaks free of iTunes DRM

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Feb 20th, 2008

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.

Tags: DoubleTwist, DRM, DVDJon

Filed under: iTS

DVD Jon responds to Steve's DRM letter

by Erica Sadun (RSS feed) on Feb 7th, 2007

DVD Jon, the man supposedly behind DeCSS and advocate for circumventing DRM, has responded to Steve Jobs' open letter on DRM in three posts on his blog. In his replies, Johansen notes that some customers are more locked into the iPod based on whether they've purchased their media on CD or through the iTunes store, and Apple could (at least in theory) swiftly remove FairPlay from any track from which a content owner declines DRM. The posts are succinct, but well worth reading in their entirety at Johansen's site.

Tags: DVD Jon, DvdJon

Filed under: iTS, Internet Tools, iTunes, Apple

FairPlay for sale, and not by Apple

by Scott McNulty (RSS feed) on Oct 2nd, 2006

You may know Jon Lech Johansen as 'DVD Jon,' a name he acquired after he wrote DeCSS, which unscrambles the content on DVDs to make copying possible. He isn't a fan of DRM, as you can imagine, and has set his sights on Apple in the past. He has reverse engineered a previous version ofFairPlay, Apple's propriety DRM that comes along (for free!) on any item purchased from the iTunes Store. The iPod is the only device that is officially capable of playing FairPlay DRM'ed files, and the iTunes Store is the only store that sells FairPlay tracks and movies.

That is, until now. It seems that Jon wants to license his version of FairPlay to any company that might want to have their content play securely on an iPod. Now, he doesn't seem to think that this is illegal since he hasn't reverse engineered FairPlay. Instead, he created something new that acts just like it. I wonder what Apple legal will think of that.

Tags: dvdjon, fairplay

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