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QTFairUse6 strips Apple’s FairPlay DRM off iTunes Music Store files

Thursday, August 31, 2006 · 9:14 am · 23 Comments

“Remember Hymn? You should, back in the day (like, um, 2004) it allowed you to strip the FairPlay DRM right off iTunes Music Store bought files just like that; well, it’s been a long time in coming, but a new app called QTFairUse6 looks like it can now be used (with some amount of difficulty) to dump iTunes version 6.0.4 – 6.0.5 files of their chastely protection,” Ryan Block reports for Engadget.

Full article here.
Not a big deal: Apple shut it off before (JHymn) and they will again, but this is not a significant issue for Apple. The crack is too complex and, even if it was the easiest one-click thing in the world, it doesn’t matter because Apple doesn’t offer a subscription service. Therefore, unlike with the FairUse4WM crack of Windows Media DRM, the threat of people stealing all of the music they can in a month for just $14.99 or during a free trial period is nonexistent. Besides, you can already do the exact same thing today legally by burning a CD from iTunes.

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Comment Feed

23 Comments

1 2 Next »

Gregory Marks

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 9:32 am · Reply

Darn, I want something easy! hym and jyhm never worked for me.

endlesselevation.com
MPC-Guy

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 9:33 am · Reply

PlaysForSure gets hacked; MDN blasts Microsoft and praises Apple.

Fairplay gets hacked; MDN praises Apple and blasts Microsoft.

Do you fellas ever tire of yourselves?

… and the sheep chime in…
MacDragon

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 9:37 am · Reply

MDN: “it doesn’t matter because Apple doesn’t offer a subscription service”

Not for tunes, true, but Apple’s movie service is expected to be subscription based, so this IS a big deal if the same crack applies to their video DRM.
BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 9:40 am · Reply

Hello, if you don’t want pro-Mac news, why the freak do you come here? And what’s worse, you’re so dumb that you know the site works like that and you still complain about it. *rolling my eyes* Wow. The trolls are getting stupider every day.
MadMac (in disquise)

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 9:43 am · Reply

I read about the FairPlay crack, fired up Parallels, ordered up Napster free trial (after doing Yahoo but finding that their site sucked really bad!), and ensued on my quest to rip a bunch of music…FOR FREE!

Now, before all of you start jumping all over me, I have justified this in my mind because I have only ripped off the albums I have already purchased and lost the CD (or vinyl).

Thanks Napster!
Chris

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 9:55 am · Reply

Just use a virtual CD drive, burn a “CD” to it, then rerip unprotected. Then you don’t even waste a DVD. I’m sure there are virtual CD apps for Mac, aren’t there? I do it on my Windows machine (NO, I will never buy another one, but I have a 3 year old one, so I use it for some things). It works great. It’s only for my own convenience, I don’t share the files at all.
hobbes

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 10:00 am · Reply

“pro-Mac news”

Hehe, intersting how the Fox definition of “news” seem to slowly replace the original meaning. In the good old days we called that advertizing, misinformation, or FUD.
Individual user

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 10:12 am · Reply

With FairUse4WM crack of Windows Media DRM, I can steal millions of songs for free.

With QTFairUse6 crack of Apple’s FairPlay DRM, I can “steal” one song after I buy it for $0.99.

Anyone who can’t understand the piracy potential differential between FairUse4WM vs. QTFairUse6 is a moron.

MacDailyNews is, of course and as usual, entirely correct in their “Take.”
John

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 10:25 am · Reply

So… has anyone gotten this to work? The version I downloaded says to fire up QTFairuse.py (I assume via terminal), but when I run it through python, I get a bunch of error messages and no output file.

Any ideas, or brainy ones?

TIA
DW

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 10:32 am · Reply

Well… a cople of weeks ago, they came up with a way to strip Windows DRM. I don’t know why anyone is surprised (or upset) because obviously Apple’s FairPlay was next.
Mark

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 10:38 am · Reply

DM,

Thank you for needlessly telling us what the MDN Take, not to mention the “Related articles,” already clearly tell us.
Markus of Queensberry

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 10:53 am · Reply

MDN’s take is right on the money! We’ve all always been able to burn a CD and then do what we want with the songs. Re-import to iTunes or whatever. These DRM stripping programs for iTunes are a waste of time and unnessecary.
mike k.

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 10:56 am · Reply

individual user: With FairUse4WM crack of Windows Media DRM, I can steal millions of songs for free.

With QTFairUse6 crack of Apple’s FairPlay DRM, I can “steal” one song after I buy it for $0.99.

Anyone who can’t understand the piracy potential differential between FairUse4WM vs. QTFairUse6 is a moron.

Quoted for Truth.

Trolls — If you can be refuted in fewer than three sentences then you really need to step up the level of your game.
simple1

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 11:44 am · Reply

damn Mike K., you beat me to it!! trolls complaining about MDN’s take are being quite foolish.
The Music company, Artist & Apple always win even after you strip the music of the DRM, because guess what, you’ve already paid for it and it’s only one song!! I mean I wouldn’t spend $10,000(or even $100 as a matter of fact) to strip it of DRM and put it online for everyone to download. Who would be losing that battle? the idiot who paid and decided to strip it of DRM and give it away for free. and who still wins, the damn record companies who still get their money, I don’t think even the record companies are equally as concerned that this iTunes DRM has come out compared to Napster and all other subscription models.
MPC-Guy

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 11:47 am · Reply

Individual user: Great response. That makes sense, you moron. Had to add that last part, since you screwed up what was an intelligent response. G’day anyway.

—

BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots: Sad that you are unable muster anything reasonable to add. You should go read a book on manners, debate, and then apologize to everyone you’ve wronged in your life since you probably act the same in the real world.

—

mike k.: Notice how you didn’t have any original thought to add? Ever think some of us MDN posters (I own several Macs) prefer thoughtful exchanges rather than the more-of-the-same MDN dialogue. Of course you haven’t!

Microsoft-sucks, Apple-rules is amusing for about 5 seconds.

—

This is one of the few MDN Takes that, on the whole, is accurate and fair. Many of their other “takes” are just plain biased and weak. This one I agree with, though.
Generic User #324325432

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 12:07 pm · Reply

“Not a big deal”

Sure it is.

Now several or many people can put together all their paid-for DRM music in one place and run this app.

Your smallish DRM’d library can become a huge non-DRM’s one overnight.

But you’re right about Apple not really caring.

Apple and Microsoft both only need the illusion of DRM, for the vast (ignorant) majority of users.

They won’t sweat teh small stuff, the geeks and horders.
mike k.

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 12:16 pm · Reply

MPC-Guy my old friend, i’m sorry about the sand in your vagina. Surely there are other websites which cater to your preferences more than this one. If not, maybe you can start Mac and PC Guy Daily News …

Now — on to some thoughtful exchange: what is the impetus for stripping iTunes’ DRM? For me, it is usually because i want to send it to a friend who might be interested in the artist in question. In that case i usually capture the audio, re-encode it and send it. If i am feeling lazy then i just download it off a P2P network. I have contributed to many CD sales in this fashion.

The music industry needs to understand that “try before you buy” is a really good sales technique for music. The people who will scam such a system were not going to pay for music anyway. For others, myself included, this allows me to discover more music than if i had to buy a new CD every time. I wish iTunes had full song previews. I would buy more music this way.

What are some other general uses which iTunes’ DRM interferes with? I suppose some people just object to DRM in principle.
intheshelter

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 12:27 pm · Reply

Although I love Apple I have to agree with MPC-Guy. As soon as I saw this was cracked I knew MDN would spin it differently than the PlaysForSure hack.

Just try and be consistent MDN. These are hacks either way, and to be honest, I’m glad for the hacks. I hate DRM in either form. Gives me an opportunity to strip the DRM out of my current library!
LordRobin

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 12:59 pm · Reply

“John” — I think it only works with the Windows version of iTunes.

As to why anyone would use Hymn or this app, it’s beyond me. I mean, they’re not pirates. If they were they’d have stolen the music off P2P. They’re not audiophiles either — no audiophile would pay for compressed music — so they could just burn to CD and re-rip.

Best as I can see, iTunes crackers fall into three categories:
– Techno-geeks who want to do it just because they can
– Free-information ideologues who do it on principle
– People who like the convenience of iTMS but have one non-supported device they want to play their music on, but can’t be bothered to burn a CD and re-rip. (How many of these folks can there be?)
Reality Check

Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 1:01 pm · Reply

Maybe because IT IS DIFFERENT than the PlaysForSure hack. If you morons can’t see the difference, then that is obviously your problem.

Being able to “steal” a song after it’s already been purchased is FAR different than downloading thousands of songs for free like you can right now on the WMA services.

Besides, you can burn a CD and re-rip iTunes songs to remove the DRM anyway, this has been known like forever. So tell us again how this QT hack makes things any different now you geniuses???