The ‘digital rights management’ embedded in music files bought from Apple’s iTunes site (the self-styled ‘most popular legal online music service’ even though it has only sold 21 songs per iPod) is apparently bursting at the seams. Recently, Jon Lech Johansen (of de-CSS fame, also known as DVD-Jon) produced a program to decrypt files transmitted over Airport Express (Apple’s PC-to-hifi wireless thing). This was more symbolic than of any practical us, since anyone wanting to take advantage of it had to:
- Own a Mac of some kind
- Buy an Airport Express kit, at a cost of over ?230
However much of the same code has now been used to created Hymn (originally PlayFair, but it changed its name after being chased out of two countries by Apple minions), which can convert the files as they are downloaded. Apparently the new iTunes update blocks the current version of Hymn, but there are of course two problems with that:
- If they could crack the DRM on the previous version there’s no reason to suggest they can’t do the same with this one (after all its the same DRM they just tweaked it slightly)
- There is nothing to compel people to download the update
Could the days of DRM be numbered? I doubt it somehow, but there’s always hope.
Apple did come up with something to compel people to update: they don’t let them buy new songs from iTMS until they do so. One could think that this hurts them more than helps them, though.
Time will tell if DRM on artistic works goes the same route as copy protection did on software in teh early ’90s. DRM does not and never will work and will increasingly annoy people, so it may come to pass.