Famous Hacker Jon Lech Johansen has done it again!

[Larry_OHF]

CNN

DVD Jon, the 15 year old who cracked into DVD copy-protection and became an instant celebrity has done it again at the age of 22...this time with iPod by Apple. He's consulted lawyers and trying his best to stay legal, feeling that he has a case that can actually win at court against Apple who makes their combo of music and player only work as duo...not to be mixed with competitors' players nor play music from any other source. Jon's hack is believed to be the break in technology that has been waited for, and tried for unsuccessfully by such companies like RealNetworks Inc.

Let's cheer the guy on and hope he wins! What will he do if he wins? He says that he wants to profit off of this one, and I don't blame him. He deserves it.

[Hivetyrant]

Do I like Apple? Not really
Do I like IPod's? hell no, worst $450 I ever spent
Do I think Apple should be able to put restricitons on what type of files their devices play? Hell yes!

I should not have to go into detail as to why I think that, it's their product and they should have complete control over it.

[Callum]

I don't think the cracking was so much as to allow other types of files to be played on the iPod, as it was for other mp3 players to be able to play songs downloaded from iTunes.

[SpiritWarrior]

I think having their proprietary format is totally their call, this is the virtual trademark of the internet. I see the guy getting a rude awakening when Apples lawyers come out to face him, sporting their iPods made of pure gold.

[Bozos of Bones]

You go guy!
Hopefully Apple will bring out his big guns, sue him, and Jon will win.

[Havock]

I don’t see what the big stink would be about. This guy might be making it easier to do, but there has been ways around i-tunes almost since they started it up. I know of and use 2 different ways to get around the I-tunes encryption, if you want to call it "encryption". The easiest way is to burn your I-tunes onto a music cd and then rip them back onto the comp as regular MP3's. i-tunes fully supports burning your own cd's because you already paid for the music and legally you can make 1 back up of it. The other way is to strip off the DRM protection. This removes the time limit some sites have on songs and it also removes the proprietary junk they attach to the song. There are a few programs out there to do it. Then you can play your i-tunes on any music player and you don’t have to worry about your rights to the song you paid good money for expiring because you went over the time limit or # of plays limit.

I hope that this guy wins in court for no other reason than because he hasn't done anything that isn't already being done. I also hope that he wins because intelligence should be encouraged. We have too many Paris Hiltons walking around, and not enough Stephen Hawkings.


Edited part: Another option would be for him to move somewhere that the local cops dont care about internet lawsuits. Places where the populace worries more about eating than they do about some pale kid hacking comp files. I would love to see apples lawyers trudgeing thru South America or the Gaza stip just to try and sue someone.

[ 10-26-2006, 06:57 AM: Message edited by: Havock ]

[Iron Greasel]

Originally posted by Hivetyrant: ...it's their product and they should have complete control over it.

My view is that once I pay 450 dollars for it, it's *MY* product and *I* should have complete control over it.

[ZFR]

Originally posted by Iron Greasel: quote: Originally posted by Hivetyrant: ...it's their product and they should have complete control over it.

My view is that once I pay 450 dollars for it, it's *MY* product and *I* should have complete control over it. [/QUOTE]Flawed logic. You knew about their restrictions before you bought it. It's not like they tried to hide it.
They are offering you a product that can't play music from other sources, for your 450$. You want it take it, you don't want don't.

[ 10-26-2006, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: ZFR ]

[Olorin]

How is the iPod's proprietary format any different than a PlayStation or XBox. People don't go buy XBox games and then complain that it won't run in their PlayStation. They don't say "I paid $$ for my PlayStation, so it's *my* product and *I* should have complete control over it.

Why is it okay for console makers to publish content that can only be run on their hardware, but it's not okay for Apple to operate a music store that is meant only for their hardware (although it still works to play music on your computer--Windows or Mac, and you can burn CD's to play in any brand of CD player).

If you own all your music, then you can take your CD's and import them into iTunes. So the iPod can be used to play any music that you own (unless some other online vendors don't allow you to create a CD--but then your issue should be with them).

If you want to use iTunes to buy music, but play it on another company's mp3 player, I can understand why Apple makes that more difficult. Why should they be in the business of providing content for their competitor's products? The whole reason that Apple keeps the song prices low through iTunes is because they make up for it with profits on the iPods. If you make iTunes songs freely available to any company's players, you would soon see the prices going up on iTunes to compensate for the loss of iPod sales.

[ 10-26-2006, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: Olorin ]

[Luvian]

Originally posted by Olorin: How is the iPod's proprietary format any different than a PlayStation or XBox. People don't go buy XBox games and then complain that it won't run in their PlayStation. They don't say "I paid $$ for my PlayStation, so it's *my* product and *I* should have complete control over it. Why is it okay for console makers to publish content that can only be run on their hardware, but it's not okay for Apple to operate a music store that is meant only for their hardware (although it still works to play music on your computer--Windows or Mac, and you can burn CD's to play in any brand of CD player). If you own all your music, then you can take your CD's and import them into iTunes. So the iPod can be used to play any music that you own (unless some other online vendors don't allow you to create a CD--but then your issue should be with them). If you want to use iTunes to buy music, but play it on another company's mp3 player, I can understand why Apple makes that more difficult. Why should they be in the business of providing content for their competitor's products? The whole reason that Apple keeps the song prices low through iTunes is because they make up for it with profits on the iPods. If you make iTunes songs freely available to any company's players, you would soon see the prices going up on iTunes to compensate for the loss of iPod sales.

It's the same thing as Microsoft selling windows, but then bundlling all their other software with it. They've been in trouble over it. Same thing for the ipod, they sell it to you, but then create a monopoly on the music it can use.

[ 10-26-2006, 02:01 PM: Message edited by: Luvian ]