JonJohansen
Latest
DVD Jon's DoubleTwist to provide FairPlay for devices, too
Earlier this month we brought you the news that DVD Jon was skipping across the pond to California to begin a startup called DoubleTwist Ventures. Well, bucking the trend of feting the 5th anniversary of the iPod, Fortune magazine took the opportunity to interview DVD Jon about how he hopes to stick it to Cupertino. DoubleTwist's business model is to license not just that one, but two pieces of Johansen-authored software that will break Apple's DRM by letting other companies "sell copy-protected songs that play on the iPod, and another that would let other devices play iTunes songs." Clever -- open up FairPlay in both directions. Johansen believes that it's his responsibility to fix Apple's restrictive format, and even has a quote from Steve Jobs in 2002 -- "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own." -- tacked on a wall in his office as a reminder. While DoubleTwist's business model may suffer legal troubles as a result, Fortune notes that no FairPlay-related suits have ever been filed by Apple against Johansen or anyone else: "That could be because the company is afraid that losing a case would set a precedent that would encourage imitations of the iPod. Or it could be that Apple doesn't want to give anyone the publicity." Either way, the article points out that DRM remains the set of thorns on Apple's rosy iPod.[Photo: Fortune]
