Apple's iPod Copy Protection HACKED

22 Year old, Jon Lech Johansen who previously hacked DVD encryption in his teens has now hacked through the iPod copy protection. This copy protection stops iPod users from playing downloaded music from online music stores other than iTunes. This "copy protection" also stops music that has been bought off iTunes from being played on other devices (apart from the iPod).

His company now plan to license the code to businesses who can use it to make Apples downloadable music play on their devices and to allow themselves to sell downloadable music that will play on the ipod.

So the kid who became famous as DVD Jon in his teens is now famous again for cracking open Apple's copy protection.

[goldeagle2005]

Are you really surprised? It was just a matter of time before someone thwarted the scheme. As they say, no man can create something another cannot. this promises to be a long waged battle between the music companies who want to "protect" digital content and the people who believe in openness...

[Zonr_0]

A similar thing has been done before, met with various legal successes by Apple. There have been a handful of programs which convert it from the fairplay format into a raw or .wav format.

The main diference is that what Jon here has done is reverse engineered it so other players can play the apple propeitory format without 'breaking' or converting the original file itself.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairPlay)

[John Ripple]

Apple is not a feeble brand, it is very popular and specially for your programming and the zeal to ‘think different'.