iTunes 4.7.1 finds unlocked music and puts the DRM back on

January 14, 2005

Several months ago, the Hymn Project went into development in an aim to unlock music purchased from iTunes in order to give the customer the freedom to play their music on any AAC compatible portable player as well as take their music to other PCs without worrying about DRM restrictions. However Apple fought back a few times by updating iTunes to block the 3rd party fairplay lock picking tools.

As most know, Apple is not at all keen in allowing its iTunes customers to carry their music on non iPod portable players. Well, Apple has taken a new move with iTunes 4.7.1 that scans the user's music collection and any unlocked music it identifies as being purchased from iTunes, it puts a new fairplay DRM lock back on those tracks. However the new version of iTunes does not block Hymn again like the previous versions did, although users will need to repetitively unlock their tunes each time they wish to transfer any to their AAC compatible player or anything else the DRM normally prohibits.

Quite a lot of iTunes customers are upset with the DRM complaining that if they are willing to pay for music, they should not be forced to ask for permission to move their music, told that they must buy an iPod to carry their music with them or be limited to which ever players support the DRM codec.

Analysis It's hard to think of anything that makes Apple's music store more attractive to the general public than the guarantee that the music you've bought will play wherever you want it in your home. However, Apple frowns on such good citizenship, and as we reported earlier today, is using every trick it can to make sure the music stops playing.

But the most remarkable thing about the latest skirmish between Apple and its music customers, reported here, is the sophistication of the underground medicine. The Hymn Project restores the health of AAC files by stripping them of the locks and keys Apple attaches to songs it sells.

"I just want to say thanks to iOpener for allowing me to listen the music I have legaly brought on not only my iPod but also my ordinary MP3 player," writes one happy user.

Over the New Year, a new version of the JHymn application for Windows and Mac appeared which takes the files bought through iTunes Music Store and converts them into regular MP3 format. Once converted by Hymn to MP3, the file is safe from the chicanery we saw this week. People who downloaded the iTunes 4.7.1 client software discovered that music they'd legitimately purchased had been crippled. The software update restored the locks and keys to the .mpa files. What's interesting about this week's to and fro is that users could restore the rights without downloading a new version of Hymn. Only three fields were needed to be ticked off in the user friendly graphical client. Sanity was restored.

To me the iTunes software's approach does not seem all that legal since it is actually 'infecting' files without asking the consumer to do so. Some consumers may even class iTunes as malware since it does something that many would consider malicious.

In my opinion, if a consumer is willing to pay for music, they should at least have the same freedom as if they purchased it on a non protected CD. In fact relocking music that consumers managed to unlock is likely to discourage them from ever using the service again.

Feel free to discuss and find out more about Apple in our Music Downloads, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues Forum.

Source: The Register