qtfairuse
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iTunes 7 patches QTFairUse 2.2, QTFairUse 2.3 patches iTunes 7
At some time around 10:22AM Pacific Time, by our estimations, Steve Jobs introduced to the world iTunes 7, Apple's latest and greatest hardware / software / service glue for their best-selling online media initiative. Everyone cheered its album art functions, enhanced video resolution, and movie downloads; a few of us, though, silently winced on behalf of QTFairUse / myFairTunes6 users everywhere, who'd been successfully stripping the DRM off their Apple FairPlay protected files for a few weeks now. Then, at 6:23PM PST, QTFairUse version 2.3 came out, which added (beta) iTunes 7 support. By our approximation that means it took Igor (no, not Iger) about 8 hours and 1 minute to crack the latest major iTunes update. Not bad, but we were hoping for something in the 4-6 hour range; it would seem to us the anti-DRM community is resting on its laurels. Don't make us crack the whip, guys![Thanks, Brian]
myTunes brings a GUI to stripping iTMS DRM
These crazy hackers are moving fast these days, but Engadget has stayed in stride by providing a walk-through of myTunes, a GUI front-end to QTFairUse (sadly, Windows only - for now), that python code they mentioned earlier this week (not to be confused with any other products by the name of 'myTunes').A big downer for this app, however, is the way it works its DRM-be-gone magic: it can only work on tracks as they're played in real time. Even then, you're left with a file (sans any metadata like ratings or ID3 tags) which needs to be re-constructed into a playable AAC file with a second tool, though that process seems to take mere seconds per track. Engadget recommends letting the stripping process run overnight, so you can get a good 8 hours or so of unshackled music from each batch. Check out their walk-through for more instructions and ideas on how to optimize this process.myTunes might not be pretty yet, but it sounds like the developer(s) have a polishing roadmap in place, including simplifying this to a one-step process. For now, it still is the only method we know of for setting your iTMS purchases free.
