More details to emerge, I’m sure, but this time DVD Jon, known for cracking the DVD copyright encryption, has cracked Apple’s DRM, enabling people to play their iTunes purchased music on non-Apple devices. San Francisco-based doubleTwist, co-founded by DVD Jon, is releasing the software.
Beyond computer-to-computer media-sharing, doubleTwist lets users synchronize media sitting on their computers to mobile devices they or their friends own, simply by “dragging and dropping” media files into a desktop folder that then drops copies of the media files onto the mobile devices over the Web.
This is similar functionality provided by Red Chair Software’s Anapod, which the Hobo’s Mom uses for dragging and dropping to her iPod. It also seems to mimic the functionality of Tunebite, which plays back songs in fast forward and re-records them as unprotected files.
While there appears to be little hope for DRM when users are determined to get around it, I still maintain that there is very little that people can’t do under “Fair Use” with DRM protected files.
DVD Jon Liberates Tunes from iTunesTags: Fair Use