FairTunes is a new application that strips the digital rights management (DRM) protection from songs purchased at the iTunes Music Store. FairTunes is freeware. The FairTunes website reads, “FairTunes puts your music back into your hands. Now you can play your iTunes music when you want to, and where you want to.”
Features:
– Convert any authorized protected iTunes song into an unprotected, uncompressed file.
– Supports AIFF, Wave, QuickTime, System 7 Sound, MuLaw, and AVI file creation.
– Easy to use – no complicated setup needed.
– Built for Mac OS X.
According to MacNN, “Unlike PlayFair, a similar utility that Apple has twice had removed from the Web, FairTunes does not require an iPod and is packaged as a simple Cocoa application that converts the song into an uncompressed WAV of AIFF file, which can then be encoded or burned as the user desires.” Full article here.
More info and download link here.
So you get an AIFF file which you can burn, but obviously with some more degradation due to another transcode operation.
Or you can just to burn the AAC file to a CD-DA CD, which is the same thing.
Some people have too much time�
Why did someone do this, its only gonna make problems for apple with the record companies and ruin the stride Apple has at the moment with online music. I guess the Apple attorneys are gonna pounce on this developer along with the RIAA bastard attorneys.
It’s rubbish though. If it stripped the DRM and left you with the unmodified AAC data, then this would be a problem. As it is, it just save on CDs, but does nothing for retaining quality in AAC format.
“So you get an AIFF file which you can burn, but obviously with some more degradation due to another transcode operation.” – MCCFR
AIFF (Audio File Interchange Format) is an uncompressed audio format (not to be confused with AIFF-C, which may or may not be compressed). PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) is also uncompressed. Thus, there is no further degradation converting AIFF to PCM used in Audio CD.
This, essentially, leads to the same result one would achieve by playing an encrypted song while runnig Audio Hijack and then saving in AIFF format. Not an earth-shattering solution. An app that simply stripped the DRM info from an AAC file, but left the compressed file intact might be newsworthy. This is not.
I’ve never, nor do I intend to try either solution, by the way. Apple’s usage rights don’t interfear with my listening habits.
yay!! now i can copy my tunes onto my mobile phone, and use them in my in-car mp3 CD player!!
i am sooooooo happy!!
(it was such a pain burning all my itunes purchases and then re-importing them into itunes as mp3!!!! my goodness)
I hope the RIAA is taking note that DRM will always be defeated. Once that is put behind us, then people will be able to go about downloading without any concern for the format that the file comes in and all this WMA vs AAC nonsense can be put to rest. once this is accomplished, then Apple can just turn on the ability to play unprotected WMA and that will make their player the true “open” system.
Snap out of it! Last time I checked fair use of purchased material for private use is unlimited. Apple put a 3 computer protection on their low quality aac.
16 bit 44.1 cd’s have none and cost the same price. I am sad that 24 bit music in 5.1 is now available, but we focus on protected low quality music.
Stand up and fight!
It needs iTunes authorization to proceed, so it’s just the same as burning to CD and re-ripping. Which was always possible, legal, and ethical.
Only this doesn’t waste a CD, for people who wouldn’t have burned one anyway (myself, I do like to have CD-DAs burned anyway).
What’s not to like? If you then steal the music for your friends that’s another matter–I’m firmly against piracy (if you don’t like the music enough to pay, then you have no right to listen)–but this doesn’t make any NEW ways of doing that possible. This just lets you use your music on new ways–such as non-iPod devices. No big deal, but some people will appreciate it.
But you must do the extra step of converting to unprotected AAC or MP3 yourself, which normal iTunes re-ripping does for you. QuickTime can handle that, so I imagine this app will too in future.
“…Now you can play your iTunes music when you want to, and where you want to.”
I can’t help but laugh at this comment. I think it’s pretty rare to find a situation where FairPlay really restricts your personal use (I haven’t found one yet). Most people don’t have more than three computers, and do you really need more than 10 copies of the same playlist on a CD for yourself? Come on, just come out and say what you really mean. This software allows you to pirate music purchased on iTMS without having to burn a CD.
Heh, they only say where and when just as a way of *possibly* pushing Apple legal away for a little bit. They say that so that it’s for the user to use with their own music… HAR, everyone knows that it’s so that you can have the original high quality file without the DRM. Meaning, you can stream it to more that the 3 computers that are authorized, and can send them to whomever you want (or can listen to AIFF or WAV). I’ve already got it, since I hate the 3 computer limit on streaming (although, I am one of the few who actually own my music).
ndelc – How about using it with a Squeezebox hooked up to your hifi ?
Some people are hoping for iTMS Europe, but I simply don’t care. I’m going carry on buying CDs and ripping them so that there’s no DRM. I buy albums, so that make a lot more sense to me.
it was that darn radio! it cursed us all with the ideas of paying nothin’ for our music…
Software developers interested in this sort of thing should stop wasting time and go after WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER files – that would actually be useful and maybe make microcrap sit up for once. It has the added benefit of us mac users being able to actually watch videos from eg NHL.com, which microsoft has turned a blind eye for god know how long. And we’d be able to use the other online music stores.