Donna Wentworth writes over on Corante, “Jon Johansen [has] been working on what he calls PyMusique, the ‘fair’ interface to the iTunes Music Store. Explains Jon (via email):”
PyMusique is an interface to the iTunes Music Store that lets you preview songs, sign up for an account and buy songs. It is somewhat interesting from a DMCA/EUCD perspective. The iTunes Music Store actually sells songs without DRM. While iTunes adds DRM to your purchases, PyMusique does not. Another difference is that signing up for an account using PyMusique does not require you to sign/click away any of your rights.
“But here’s the question: How “interesting” is it? Does it stay in the free and clear, or does it brush up against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) or European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD)?”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s very interesting that, according to Johansen’s email, that Apple’s iTunes Music Store actually sells songs without DRM and that it’s the iTunes application that adds DRM to your purchases where PyMusique does not. We’ll leave the rest of it to the lawyers, as one would have to bet that Apple finds this application more than just “somewhat interesting,” since Apple’s iTunes Music Store Terms of Service clearly states, “You will not access the Service by any means other than through software that is provided by Apple for accessing the Service.”
More about “DVD Jon” here.
We’re looking for more information regarding this application, which seems to have Linux and Windows versions only at this time. Early reports we’ve seen indicate that songs purchased from Apple’s iTunes Music Store (iTMS) via this application have no DRM present (the resulting files are .m4a, not .m4p) – as if you had used iTunes to rip a CD to 128kbps AAC vs. buying it from iTMS via iTunes. If anyone has any info or has tried PyMusique, please let us know via our “Contact” page or by using the “Reader Feedback” section below this article. Thank you.
I just hope DVD Jon will use his talent on BlueRay DVD’s.
this will have a shorter life than a fruitfly.
Criminals.
And this helps the consumer how?
There are two good things about this.
1 – DRM-free Music
2 – You can re-download music you’ve already bought (in case your HDD craps out, for example)
There are also two bad things about it.
1 – DRM-free music (the labels and RIAA are going to be all over this like white on rice)
2 – It’s not available on the Mac.
I also like how he uses the word ‘fair’. To me, he’s just using it to try to make an excuse for what he’s doing – very much like file swappers (who say ‘sharing’ rather than the reality, stealing (not counting non-copyrighted works, of course)).
I hope Apple gets this shut down soon – and I also hope that the RIAA/labels can get their heads out of their A$$es and wake up and let us have legal, DRM-free, music. If they did that, I’d bet that music sales would skyrocket.
JadisOne. You do mean the record companies, right?
Old stealing by new means
Given that Apple were the first company to get equitable and coherent digital rights for the consumer, it is difficult to see any benefit to Johansen’s work other than for the criminal/anarchist pirate community. However, MDN’s notes actually contain the answer – namely that this new code effectively supports Linux, a platform ignored by both iTunes and the WMA community thus disenfranchising a statistically insignificant geek community.
Additionally, this approach will presumably provide support for all AAC-compatible devices including the Panasonic device announced yesterday.
It will only be a matter of time before Apple announces iTunes 4.8, and it is now inevitable that Apple will take the opportunity to include some form of handshaking code that forces iTMS to validate that it is selling to a recognised iTunes client. However, this development also hastens the path to Apple licensing Fairplay to other player devices including Roku, Sonos and others and for that we should surely be thankful.
To LOL,
I’m referring to all parties.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” /> The digital music arena will always be a constant war between labels and consumers.
This is interesting, but only a little. DRM-less distribution of iTMS downloads is already easy. Yes, you lose a little sound quality in the process but for most people who want to get free music, that isn’t a problem. And you still have to buy the track in the first place! Even if you use PyMusique, will the file still be identified as an iTMS download? If it is, you can’t put it on KaZaA without the RIAA lawyers knowing where you got it.
Nevertheless, I’ll bet that the Cease-and-Desist orders have already been issued and that iTunes programmers will be putting in some overtime this weekend.
Is anyone else out there making an honest living anymore, or is it just me ???
macnut222:
I can’t work out whether you’re serious – we have DRM free music now on CDs and the result has been disasterous for the record industry since the onset of Kazaa, Napster et al.
Do you live in some fairytale world where people won’t – if given the opportunity or the incentive – behave in an illegal way?
This is a blow against Apple. It was only a few weeks ago that Steve Jobs was supposedly informing the record companies about Napster being ‘hacked.’ That was not a hack but this is.
In the iTunes Music Store the record companies provide the music and Apple provides the copy protection. If the copy protection can be bypassed the record companies will blame Apple for not doing enough to stop this. When these Apple-encoded DRM-free files become available on file sharing networks the record companies will be fuming and who knows what they will demand then.
You can be sure of one thing: Apple will bury PyMusique any way it can as soon as it can. Its reputation depends on it.
Now that the story is out about this application it won’t be long before Apple’s lawyers find him and put his little application to rest forever.
I wonder if this application is “criminal” al all. You buy the music, pay for it, download it and that’s it. No DRM is being removed as there isn’t any yet.
Sure, that is not the idea of the ITMS and the Music industry, but is there a law, that you MUST use iTunes to buy the music from the iTMS?
This guy is pretty clever, but I do not believe anyway that PyMusique will have a long life…
As noted: “(the resulting files are .m4a, not .m4p) – as if you had used iTunes to rip a CD to 128kbps AAC”…
Is anyone sure or is everyone taking the statements, “The iTunes Music Store actually sells songs without DRM. While iTunes adds DRM to your purchases, PyMusique does not.”, as fact.
Maybe PyMusique does a re-rip in software as it is downloading the song. The re-rip (as if the song were being re-ripped to burn a CD) would not have any DRM.
It would be interesting to find out, but that would require reverse engineering Jon Johansen’s software. Hmmm… Hacking a hacker? An interesting thought.
It seems to me that you will still have to pay a dollar for every song you want to steal (or help others steal as the case may be) so there will be a built in limitation to the amount of initial stealing. Like if you buy a CD and then put it up on the net for others to steal. Same deal. I shudder to think of the amount of theft that will happen if Jon turns his sights on the subscription services.
Shadowself,
The code is open source. Its written in Python. I just downloaded it myself. I’m interested in looking over the code. If the music on iTMS does not already have DRM, then Apple has been pulling the wool over everybody’s eyes.
From what I’m hearing from a lot of you, the only legitimate music purchase is through iTunes. Because apparently, if I buy a CD, it must mean that I’m going to rip it and make the songs available on the net. Just like if I purchase a song without DRM, it must mean that I’m going to make it available on the net.
When did DRM become legit? A lot of you guys roll over too easily. There is no acceptable form of DRM. Yes, Apple’s Fairplay is better than Microsoft’s DRM, but its still not acceptable if I don’t have the freedom to move my song to any computer running any OS or any music player. And don’t give me the cd vs. 8 track vs. cassette. It’s not an accurate comparison. We’re comparing digital music to a cd being able to play on multiple players.
MCCFR:
The reason DRM free music on CDs has been disastrous has not been due to the lack of DRM but the outrageous, indefensible, ever increasing price of the CD, and the the take of the record company, AKA the marketing people. (Yes, there have been some reductions lately – a deathbed conversion if I ever saw one).
Remember that CDs, unlike vinyl records and cassettes are so cheap to produce that they are given away for free on cereal boxes, yet they cost several times more than vinyl records. Heck, I’m even seeing CD’s now costing more than DVD movies. Plus music is cheaper to produce – GarageBand et. al.
And, the next major technological improvement, electronic distribution, has made the price situation worse – the record company take has increased, yet again. This is in spite of the fact that per unit physical manufacturing and physical display (store space, clerks etc.) and transportation costs have been eliminated – reduced to ZERO.
I/somebody should do inflation adjusted figures for this, but I would guess that, using the price of vinyl records as a base of say $5.99 U.S., the true price of a CD is something like $3.99 per album and the true price of an electronic album is something like $0.99 per album, yet we’re paying TEN TIMES THAT.
People, generally, prefer to obey the law (well, except for Microsoft executives and bribe taking/campaign financed politicans
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> ). When you completely rip people off, you make them angry and, surprise, people get creative and justify piracy.
I’m not saying piracy is ok, but the single biggest thing that the record companies could do to reduce piracy would be to charge a fair market price.
Oh, and stop acting like a predatory monopoly would be good too, even though they are a monopoly. Oh, and put music (and all intellectual property) in the public domain after, say, 25 years.
For the record companies to say, on its own, that piracy is bad, without acknowledging their MASSIVE misdeeds is disenginuous to a fault.
MDN word – together – if we all get together on this, maybe we can fix this mess?
Why is everyone calling this stealing? did the definition change? You still need to PURCHASE the song. Its more like going to walmart, buying a cheap computer and taking out all the components. Removing the packaging. As someone said previously, You cannot make an mp3 CD of iTMS songs that can be played on a DVD player or car stereo that plays mp3 CDs. Its a limitation to those who dont have iPods and want more than 15 songs on a CD.
This is a kick in the balls to DRM, not a backdoor to mass theft (a la Napster)
Thomas B.
Although there is not a law that specifically states that you must use iTunes to access iTMS, you must accept their Terms of Service to use their store:
http://www.info.apple.com/usen/itunes/terms.html
Jeff, you state that “no form of DRM is acceptable.” Why is this? Can you back up your opinion? Perhaps you feel that you bought the song, so you can do what you want? Copy & give to others, or put on file sharing? That’s copyright infringement, and it’s illegal. How does DRM affect your legal use of a song?
I agree that the record companies charge too much and take too much of the profits from the artists. But that doesn’t make it right to pirate songs. If you don’t like the price, don’t buy.
one more thing:
We all need to have a reality check here. Since external speakers are analog, you will always be able to stuff a recording device between the speaker and the computer, then convert it to digital. Presto – no DRM. Now if the analog connection is removed and the computer case is sealed with epoxy that is another matter, but I can’t see that, at least not for a few years.
This is even under the grand Microsoft scheme of hardware based protection (which, given Microsoft’s track record, will doubtlesly have gaping security holes).
Even now, you can capture the digital audio steam before it goes to the speaker using things like Audio Hijack. Plus, Apple lets you burn CDs.
So, while Apple may shut this guy down, I don’t really see this as a gaping hole. Sure, its a little embarassing for Apple, and looks rather careless from a security perspective, but that’s it.
ANY security system will always be breakable by a sufficiently skilled, funded, determined attack. Pathetic ones will be breakable by small children.
If you’re a nuclear missile site, you have to play the game, and make it as tough as possible, since the price of the prize is massive. If you’re just protecting music, the prize isn’t that great, so the effort isn’t that great. Said another way: a standard desktop machine will never, out of the box, be CIA grade.
Jimbo, why oh why does not having DRm in your music mean you will immediately put it on a P2P network? do you work for the RIAA? I just want to be able to transfer the song I purched to ANY medi player I wish or media I wish for me to get my FULL enjoyment from the product I purchased legally. When you purched your computer, if the salesmen said, sorry, you can not use this to connect to certain websites but dont worry, you can get MSN and Yahoo, thats all we think you need. Its like MS charging the same price for their “reduced media edition” Its moronic.
I’m I the only one who finds the fact that people on this forum want companies to tell them what to do with what they purchace weird?
I you bought it, came to you un encrypted, have a way to play it, why in the world would you all of the sudden for the sake of some comapny that does not owe anything to you would you then want to handicap your purchase to make it less usable
I’m I missing somehting here? Who comes first in your life, You or a company that does not know you exist?