Buy DRM-free songs from the iTunes Music Store
posted March 18th 2005 4:31AM
Jon Johansen, aka DVD Jon, aka the secret crush of hackers and DRM-haters everywhere, has struck again. And this time he's not screwing around, he's done something that will so seriously provoke Apple and the recording industry that he may have to go into hiding: he's figured out how to buy DRM-free tracks from the iTunes Music Store. How? With a PyMusique, a new front-end he and some pals/future co-defendants created for the iTunes Music Store that let's you buy songs without any of that bothersome DRM stuff. Seems that our good friend discovered that when you buy something from the iTMS, the DRM is only added to the tracks after you've purchased and downloaded them, which sort of makes sense since they do need to be tagged to your account. You'll still have to actually pay for the music, but PyMusique conveniently neglects to wrap the file with any copy protection, which means you're free to do what you want with the unrestricted file, including copying it to multiple machines or sharing it over P2P. Hard to imagine how this could possibly be legal, since Apple specifically requires you to access the iTMS only through their software (Laurie Duncan actually read the ToS and checked), but you may as well enjoy the next six to twelve hours before Apple devises a way lock PyMusique users out.
that's bad ass, but i dont get how to download the program. i've been to dvd jon's website and all those hotlinks are far to technical for me, i downloaded what i thought was a .bin but didn't get any kind of installer. can someone point me to the correct download location? thnaks.
It's sad to watch both sides of the fence on this. I fall on the No-DRM Side. But hey, maybe my reasons will make sense to people better.
Caveats:
1: I do not download P2P.
2: I do not SHARE P2P.
3: I do not "give away" extra copies of my CDs or music to friends. I am not a pirate or a theif. When somebody wants the music, I'll let them listen to it, and if they want a copy, I'll tell them to go buy it.
Now I will use some completely ficticious music as an example (Though with the variety of bands out today, it might not be. So any resemblence to any real band or title is completely unintentional.)
Let's say I want to get the song "All Green (in the Summer)" by "Dudes With Song". I think it's a good song, and I'm tired of waiting for the radio to play it. I don't care for their other music, honestly. That's the case with most of the bands these days... A few gems in the dirt.
I have a few choices:
1: Buy the CD for $18 (And end up with a lot of dirt around the gem I want).
2: P2P steal it. (But I don't do that myself)
3: Buy it on iTMS. (They carry it, but no other online store does.)
Obviously the first is out because of the cost and the junk. Two is not an option because I personally choose to not do that. So I'm left with the third. Right-O! I head to iTMS and buy it! Yay! 99 cents for the song I want!
And the story SHOULD have a happy ending here, and does, according to the music industry. But then life continues... and here's what happens...
I go and take my happy shiny new file, and decide I want to put it on my MP3 Jukebox (Which I got 60 GB for $185... iPods are ruddy expensive!!). Um... Can't do that. Riiight. Okay. Probably means I can't put it into the MP3 head unit in my car either.
And I personally don't like the iTunes program. It's big and bulky and annoying. So I'll play it in !! ... Um... Can't do that either. Okay, I'll burn it to a CD so I can listen to it on my stereo in the living room at least. ... My CD Burner is too [old and crappy | new and shiney] for iTunes to handle?
Blast! Okay... FINE... I'll.. I'll... Um... I know!! I'll use one of those sound stream capture thingies and convert it to an MP3! Yay! ... Gah... Sounds like crap... Digital to compressed to uncompressed to analog to digital and then recompressed via a different method... Bleh... Sounds like the rest of their songs on their CD. Okay, I'll just drop it on my Laptop. Cool. Now I can listen to it out... Enter password? No internet connection??! GAH! Wait... So what CAN I do? Um. I can listen to it on iTunes. I can spend money on a new CD burner, or ditch my fancy new one that I already spent money on. I can buy an iPod for a huge expense. Or I can buy a CD with 18 crap songs and this song on it for $18.
Hmm... I guess I could always go and P2P it for free without having to worry about all this crap, and able to use it in all the places I want. but I'm not going to do that personally, because even though I -OWN- a copy of the song now, I'm still considered a criminal for downloading another copy of it that doesn't suck.
... But how many folks go through the first bit (Paying for the song) once, and then give up and DO just head to P2P? And even if they don't, how many of them just mostly give up on the music industry, stop buying things, and therefore are a loss?
This simple little program allows me to put the song in my car, on my JukeBox, in my stereo in the living room, and play it with Winamp for example. Suddenly I have a reason to buy music again. Are you saying I'm a criminal just because I -CAN- use this program to send it out P2P??! Wow... I guess that people with guns are all criminals then because they -CAN- use the gun to rob a store. And people with houses are all criminals because they -CAN- commit the crime of arson and fraud by burning their house down and claiming insurance. And people with hair are criminals because they -CAN- use long hair to choke somebody, or cut off short hair and stuff it in somebody's mouth and commit a crime that way. And people with hands are criminals because they -CAN- use it to hit somebody (battery). Dude... messed up world.
> If I go to a record store and buy a CD, I can easily rip the music to my computer and put it on ANY audio device I want. So why can I not do this with music I buy online?
#46, I don't know about you, but I can do all the same things with my iTMS downloads that I could do with a CD I bought in the store. The only difference is that I need to write it to CD before being able to do that. So what is the limiting factor again?
And don't cry about quality of reripping. If you are a finicky audiophile, then online music is not for you anyway because even first gen AAC tunes have issues.
Where does fair use constitute a requirement that you be able to make a 1:1 quality digital duplicate when transferring between competing technologies?
Big Jon finds it all so funny on ripping security features out. Lets see if he finds it so funny when he has two Federal Agents knocking on his door and take him into custody so he can share a jail cell with a big guy called Bubba for the next 10 years!
>The only difference is that I need to write it to CD before being able to do that. So what is the limiting factor again?
The limiting factors are that it is ridiculous to have to burn and rerip everything from CD, and contrary to what most people who use computers a lot and know a lot about them may think, there is still a substantial number of people out there who wouldn't know you can do that, how to do it, or don't even have a CD burner. Also, the fact that you can get around it in this manner is another reason that it is pointless to use DRM, so you helped make the point of people who are for getting rid of it.
> there is still a substantial number of people out there who wouldn't know you can do that, how to do it, or don't even have a CD burner
#50: Yes, and I am quite sure that those people are the ones who are interested in DRM free online music. If they don't know how to write a CD or own a CD burner, they are highly unlikely to own an iPod or any other MP3 player for that matter.
>Also, the fact that you can get around it in this manner is another reason that it is pointless to use DRM, so you helped make the point of people who are for getting rid of it.
I have to go home now to remove the locks from my front door. It's such a pain in the ass to have to put that key in every time I want the door to open. Besides, theives can get around the lock by prying it open with a crow bar, so I ask, what's the purpose of having it there?
>If they don't know how to write a CD or own a CD burner, they are highly unlikely to own an iPod or any other MP3 player for that matter.
I respectfully disagree with you on that point, and since neither us can definitively prove our opinion, so let's drop that one.
>Besides, theives can get around the lock by prying it open with a crow bar, so I ask, what's the purpose of having it there?
Nice analogy, except DRM has nothing to do with theft. If, as you believe, everyone who buys mp3s online and has an iPod knows how to get rid of the DRM, then theft can still occur, and it is therefore useless. So which is it, DRM serves a purpose because it prevents theft, or everyone knows how to get around DRM?
Everyone keeps talking about fair use. How about if I buy a song I can ulisten to t anyway anytime I want. hat sounds fair! If they aren't gonna be fair they cannot expect people to be.
I think the consumer should drive record companies out of business completely, and create a system where all music is sold and marketed entirely online by the individual artists themselves. All this BS only serves to make the record labels more money and does nothing to help the artist, who almost always gets screwed by the label when it comes to profit sharing. Viva la musica!
The fact is, this guy isn't doing anything wrong, he is simply giving options to people who want to have free reign over their legally purchased files.
It doesn't seem to work though. When I try to purchase a song, it says, "Please try again later"
I don't see any other option to buy the music. Can someone help me out?
"If you bought a framed poster and had the ability to make a digital copy of the poster and print it out, would you make a copy, print it our and give it to a friend to hang in their house? Of course not,"
Haha, i would do that :)
Locks are DESIGNED to keep honest people out. If you use the privacy lock on most household bathrooms you will stop people from blundering in on you whilst in the shower or on the crapper.
They are USED to make passing through certain points difficult and not worth the effort. So when Richard Ramirez is 'stalking' around he avoids the houses with locked doors and windows. He just keeps 'prowling' around until he finds an OPEN window. Much easier that way...
Could he kick in a door or break a window ? Probably. But that might attract attention and witnesses and good samaritans and homeowners who could call the police and/or snap his scrawny neck.
And there's always an open window *somewhere*...
DRM is the same.
Did locks do anything to prevent the atrocities of the infamous 'Night Stalker' ? Not really, all it did was help determine who he victimized, not whether or not he commited the crimes. He didn't care who he attacked, so long as he got what he wanted. And pirates don't care where they get their stuff, so long as they get it.
DRM does help ensure that iTunes is not fueling P2P but at the same time does nothing to STOP P2P/media theft/copyright infringment from continuing in the wild, just as locks on your door only help prevent YOU from being a tempting target of criminals while doing nothing to actually STOP crime.
(And to all you pirates out there:
No, no matter what the RIAA says a little media piracy is not in any way equivalent to the horrific exploits of Mr. Ramirez and I was in no way siggesting that. But I saw a documentary about him recently and needed a famous criminal for my analogy and his MO simply fit the bill...)
I'm not in favour of DRM - but this is such an unbelievably stupid idea. Hmm, if I were a recording industry giant and I heard about this (which I will, since it's now all over the net), I would .... immediately cancel all my music / iTunes contracts with Apple. So, iTMS will die.
So, bravo. You've cracked iTMS. Except, tomorrow there is no iTMS, so you'll have nothing to crack. So, er, iPod is dead. So, er we'll all have to use MS's WMA and rent all our digital music or steal it.
Thanks a bundle Jon.
Boy, could you be a little more dramatic there Julian?
Actually.... Apple is trying to make money. Like every Corporation. They could care less about the "cause", they are'nt on a mission to cure America, and if you think otherwise your kidding yourself. They care about making money, everything else is just PR fluff.
"44. Posted Mar 18, 2005, 3:09 PM ET by Alex M
I use iTunes.
I download music illegally sometimes (but not with Kazaa)
I buy CDs
BUT I would never use sht like this - Apple is doing a great job trying to completely legalise music and people like that are screwin it up.
Come on Jobsie, you can fix it!
"
Re: #53
I think you are forgetting something: Jon does not live in the USA, and will probably never go there (think what happened to Dmitry Skylarov...). The oh-so-bad FBI can do exactly nothing to him.
And besides, the Norwegian court has ruled two or three times _against_ the claims of *AA associations from the USA.
What makes you think they'll do different this time?
Sure, most european law sistems do not admit precedent ruling as binding, but they still take them in consideration.
For those that think Napster is such a great deal, especially those that are looking forward to cancelling their subscriptions and having tons of downloads for free. Not gonna happen. You must link to their site every so often. If you cancel your subscription, your downloads will cease to play.
Or if u dont feel like using this, just use frickin jhym, which ive been using forever. Just select the itunes folder, press convert, it converts the whole library deleting the old copies.
I really can't understand why some people think FairPlay "fair". It's a DRM, goddamit, and IT TAKES AWAY YOUR FREEDOM! Period. DVD Jon, once more, saves the day for freedom.
I imagine all those people would be the first to cheer DVD Jon if FairPlay, in its current form, was made by, ahn, Microsoft.
Sorry, I can't understand Apple lovers (and I even had a Mac for a year!)
There are two arguments here: A) The legality of stealing vs. buying songs. B) The legality of copying them.
A) I am so sick of the anti-establishment crowd crying foul because they think they are entitled to the music they want. They own the music. They can do with it as they please. If they want to charge you a hundred dollars for the privlege of listening to it, they can. It doesn't mean anyone has to. If your going to live in a capitalist society, deal with the consequences.
B) This is kinda shakey ground, because once you have paid that hundred dollars, whose to tell you that you don't own it now? If I buy a car, can't I let my friends borrow it? But, again, they sold it to you, so if they decided to put a feature in the car that only allowed you to drive it, it's your choice to buy it or not.
Bottom line is, the artist isn't getting hurt as much as everyone wants you to believe. They don't make that much money off of sales, with the exception of the Beatles and a handfull of others. Most artists make their money from publishing sales and endorsments. You have to sell a lot of CDs for the artist to make any money that way. I'm talkin gold, baby.
70,
Also, if they're licensing music to you or selling it with restrictions on use, and you agree to such restrictions (EULA?) when you pay, then you're probably acquiescing to their terms, regardless of whether you were able to copy that audio cassette back in 1985.
Most of the analogies are flawed because of one simple fact: DRM does not prevent or deter anyone from stealing music, it merely acts as an inconvenience for the end-user.
While typical home security devices don't work in the sense of keeping out criminals absolutely determined to break in, they do make it sufficiently inconvenient to deter most criminals.
No currently-available DRM system is anywhere near that effective. They only slightly slow down the evil-doers, as these systems have not prevented anyone from illegally copying songs obtained from iTunes, or making pirated DVDs. As people have pointed out, Apple's iTunes system is easy to circumvent by burning the songs to a CD, and obviously someone determined to illegaly resell them can do so very easily.
If the DRM systems weren't an inconvenience, ordinary people wouldn't be looking for ways around them. I use an "illegal" DVD player because I use a home theater system which runs Linux, and I also store copies of my DVDs on my hard drives so I don't scratch up the originals. This "illegal" behavior doesn't bother me in the slightest, because I don't have any real alternatives short of not watching them at all (and I'd hope the movie industry was happy I bought the DVDs in the first place). I also have never owned or used illegal copies of DVDs, software, or music, and I have no intention of doing so.
DRM proponents assume that everyone is out to get everything for free, when the reality is that most people are happy to pay for the things they receive. Shoplifting is very easy to do but most people don't do it, or even think of doing it.
And I have yet to see any believable studies showing what percentage of end-users are never paying for any of the music they listen to, and how this is affecting music industry revenues. The music industry is in trouble, but it has far more to do with an oversaturated market and a lack of quality than "music pirates *arrrrrr*".
I would have no problem with paying $.99 to Apple for a song if it weren't a) lossily compressed and b) encumbered with DRM crap which makes it difficult/impossible for me to use. Instead I end up buying CDs and ripping them myself, a rather boring activity I would gladly forego if reasonable alternatives existed. iTunes isn't it, and won't be until they figure out many users don't want or need to buy into the Apple way of doing things.
Personally I rather like iTMS and iTunes, I also own an ipod, so the whole DRM thing doesn't bother me at the moment.
However I'd use something like jHymn to convert the iTMS downloads just incase I fancied a change of desktop/portable player or Apple does another of it's famous u-turns and tries to go tits-up again.
Like I say not because of any apparent 'lack of freedom' just to best preserve my purchases.
I also doubt Apple really give much of a toss about the DRM, but they will have to play ball in order to get the music in the first place.
Use p2p and stop being a turd knocker...nothing will happen...grow up
Sometimes I go see a movie at a multiplex theater and I only pay for the admission of one movie screening, but I'm bored on a Sunday so I decided to catch two other movies (WITHOUT PAYING Oh my God what has become of me) am I considered a criminal in your eyes? Oh and sometimes I bring in my own health concious food with a bottle of water instead of opting to buy the 7 dollar popcorn and the 5 dollar soda. You know I sleep pretty well at night dispite having broken the law of coarse if it was a scary movie that I saw then I have a little trouble falling asleep
[Second attempt - configuration problem my end caused failure first time. Sorry if this appears twice]
The complaint against DRM is two fold.
It's reducing what you can do with music. People seem to just grumble and accept which is unfortunate, or enough people work around it for it not to be a problem.
It's being used to lock you into one vendor's equipment. I think people may take some time to wake up to this one. Imagine you owned a Phillips CD player and have been building up a nice collection. Now you see that Technics have this really nice new player, and your old Phillips player is getting past it now. With CDs it's no problem. The hi-fi industry has got on well making devices that talk to eachother nicely (Phillips CD player, Rotel amplifier, Wharfdale speakers, ... all compatible) and read standard media.
With DRM you're stuck. You'll have to replace with Phillips. People like Microsoft see this as a wonderful opportunity to lock out competitors like Linux or even Apple - hence the push to make Windows Media Format ubiquitous and the much too late complaint from the EU about that.
Invest in a Windows Media music collection, and never be able to change from Windows without losing that collection. Be forever at the whim of Microsoft. With the need for continual security updates, you'll have to keep paying to keep your system up to date. That kind of upgrade churn and vendor lock-in has not before existed in the music world, and I don't think digital music has been around long enough for enough people to start to feel the pain.
to griz and others who suggest burning to a cd and reripping as a method of stripping drm. that's all well and good except that when you burn a cd from a lossy format, like mp3 and aac/acc format, it recreates a wav from incomplete information. when you rip it from that wav, you lose even more information from the music you're trying to play. the end result is you've just decreased the quality of your music. unless itms offers a lossless option which i'm not aware of, burning and reripping is not a viable option if you care what your music sounds like.
What's all the excitement about? Any nitwit can remove the DRM any time they like. After downloading, click the "Burn to CD" button. THERE IS NO LOSS OF QUALITY. If a CD isn't good enough, you can rip it back using the Apple Lossless codec with no degradation whatever from the original download (THERE IS NO LOSS OF QUALITY), or rip it to 320 kbit AAC -- you won't hear any difference that way either--the quantization loss of a 320 kb rip does not remove anything after a 128 kb rip: what it would have taken out is already gone. It's a little inconvenient, but Apple isn't handcuffing anyone. Removing the DRM is built into the system for those that want it. Besides, it's almost as incovenient to compile this hack (and update it every month as Apple tweaks the iTunes store). This is a big waste of everybody's time. I'd rather have Apple engineers working on more cool stuff like iTunes (which is free, BTW), than fixing things we break for no good reason. Get a life.
Congratulations - thanks to the tireless work of ethics challenged morons like DVD Jon, the inevitable conclusion by the music industry will be that the Apple DRM solution just doesn't work, and rescind (or, not renew) Apple's music contracts. Then, we'll be stuck with Windows/MS DRM, which the industry must regard as much better, as it really hasn't been compromised yet ( re-recording doesn't compromise the DRM).
Thus, the online music provider with the most consumer-friendly DRM will have goten booted because of flakes complaining about DRM, and all that'll be left is Windows DRM, which is draconian restrictive, and extremely consumer un-friendly.
Let me guess - we won't be hearing a 'peep' from any of the anti-DRM brigade at that point - this kind of crap really makes me wonder how big DVD Jon's paycheck, that he receives from MS/Napster/etc... really is.
Yes, DRM sucks, but all things considered, Apple's DRM is the most transparent, as long as you're not a jesus-sandal-wearing unemployed hippie moron with a purist (and unrealistic) attitude.
Daffy
To Matthaus, who says: "burning and reripping is not a viable option if you care what your music sounds like."
If you care what your music sounds like, you wouldn't be buying it from the iTMS, anyways - as it's encoded at 128K, which is less than ideal for the audiophile/purist.
If you care what our music sounds like, you buy the CD from a used-CD store, RIP it at a high bit-rate - and you end up with DRM free music, at a lower cost than the iTMS, without DRM, and that sounds 'excellent' (depending on your encoding settings).
If you care what your music sounds like, you wouldn't frequent the iTMS, and if you don't, the burn-to-cd solution is a viable alternative.
Either way, you'd be paying too much - buy your CDs used, and rip them yourself.
Daffy
I was trying to burn a CD last night with itunes but it did not like the media I was using. No big deal I can use Nero. Well my itunes tracks (think pepsi promo) are no good in Nero. This program allowed me to burn my free pepsi songs in Nero. I don't feel like I did any thing illegal. They are my tracks.
"Either way, you'd be paying too much - buy your CDs used, and rip them yourself."
What's better than paying $17.99 per album at your local record store ?
Better than paying $12.99 at Fry's or Best buy ?
Better than paying $9.99 at iTunes ?
Paying $4 - $10 at your local USED record store (or the used section of your regular music shop) !
I live in the Bay Area, and you can get most anything at Amoeba or Rasputin's in SF/Berkely...even the eclectic/indie/foreign stuff (WOLFSTONE!!!!) at highly discounted rates and at full CD quality. You can then copy it, rip it, mix it, set your drink on it, etc...
To bad some people don't live in major metropolitan areas, and thus largely do not have access to such resources...
Ironically enough, I'd say used CD selling is in many ways kinda close to the model of P2P.
Basically people are SHARING music. I know, you can't listen to a cd you don't have, but how is not listening to the disc you don't have all that different from having said disc and never playing it (which is why people sell/exchange their CD's) ? I think, really only the local shop makes any money off those sales. The artists and publishers have already gotten paid for their involvement with that particular disc that you buy used. The only way the recording industry makes money off used CD's I guess would be on the assumption that you will recycle some or all of whatever the shop gives you for it back into NEW cd's. There is no guarantee of this happening though.
And if someone buys your used CD, they're probably not going to buy a brand new one as well. So that person will then be able to listen to and enjoy the content without giving the artist or publisher a dime. I could be wrong about the mechanics of this, but it seems to me that if P2P is a threat to the music industry, used CD reselling kinda is to.
Obviously though, factory pressed CD's don't spontaneously replicate at no cost. Pirated files sort of do, so I can see why one is perhaps a bigger threat than the other...
Still, I wonder why the RIAA never tried to stop it. Particularly since in P2P usually there is absolutely NO exchange of money, but with used CD's SOMEONE is making some kind of profit...
I don't understand how some people find normal to pay $0.99 = $1 for a song and accept DRM for it. You don't get ANY discount for accepting the "FairPlay" limitations of iTunes DRM. In many cases is even cheaper to buy the physical CD, a CD that you can be played anywhere, not only on 5 computers or something like that.
#85 (Marian)
>even cheaper to buy the physical CD, a CD that you can be played anywhere, not only on 5 computers or something like that.
Can you tell me when you have an instance where you need to play a song on 5 computers at one time? If you need to have 5 computers authorized at one time, you are by far the exception to the norm.
Also, if you burn to CD, you can now play it wherever you want.
Even though the software is now out there, I have been making DRM free music files since iTunes has been around. It is easy enough for me to burn whatever track I bought on iTunes onto a disk and then import the song back into my iTunes music directory. Problem solved!
The point of the whole program was to make it accessible to those using other OSs, such as Linux. Cody uses only Linux and purchased iTunes yet was unable to use it. The music company got their compensation as did iTunes.
If you look at iTunes you are able to have it on 5 computers at a time and delete or add as long as it is only 5 computers. You can also have playlists and burn them a certain number of times, delete and add the list again. If that is the case who can say that people only make a few burns of the music? The DRM essentially is useless if this is the case.
I download an album for a buck/song and then burn it on a cd. Sounds silly to me.
Buy the cd in the first place. No limitations, great quality and artwork.
Someone commented
#3 you tell me a legal way to buy a single track with out buying the CD other than from the net and I will sign up.
It's called your Public Library - Most have CD's for 'rent' - a small
check out fee - My Library - NO fee, I copy what I want.
HI people! I don't know how old you guys are, but a teenager (barely, today's my birthday) cracked DRM. All you have to do is (on a mac) go to music>itunes music> whatever song u like thats DRMed and change the tag. Change it in this order; .M4p > .mp4 > .m4a. it works.