Reuters: A hacker who as a teen cracked the encryption on DVDs has found a way to unlock the code that prevents iPod users from playing songs from download music stores other than Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes, his company said on Tuesday.Jon Lech Johansen, a 22-year-old Norway native who lives in San Francisco, cracked Apple’s FairPlay copy-protection technology, said Monique Farantzos, managing director at DoubleTwist, the company that plans to license the code to businesses.
“What he did was basically reverse-engineer FairPlay,” she said. “This allows other companies to offer content for the iPod.”
At the moment, Apple aims to keep music bought from its iTunes online music store only available for Apple products, while songs bought from other online stores typically do not work on iPods.
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Rdney | Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 10:43
Did he break a law in doing this?
If not I think apple better hire him
luk | Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 11:18
That’s not quite clear yet. CNN reports:
(…) “There’s a certain amount of trouble that Apple can give us, but not enough to stop this,” Farantzos said Tuesday. “We believe we’re on good legal ground, and our attorneys have given us the green light on this.”
Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said the company did not want to comment. (…)
Fred von Lohmann, a staff attorney at the privacy-advocacy group, Electronic Frontier Foundation, said Johansen is treading carefully this time, consulting with lawyers, but isn’t necessarily cleared from a legal fight over copy-protection laws.
“There is a lot of untested legal ground surrounding reverse engineering,” he said.
Rdney | Friday, October 27, 2006 at 22:55
I wish him the best of luck in his fight.