The Unofficial Apple Weblog is reporting that Jon Lech Johansen (aka ‘DVD Jon’), the hacker who first released the DeCSS tool to break DVD encryption back in 1999, has apparently rewritten Apple’s FairPlay DRM algorithm and is offering to license it to anyone that wants their content securely played on an iPod.
Basically, Jon has written a 100% FairPlay-compatible DRM system which would allow anyone (who payed him for it) to lock down content for playback on an iPod.
Currently, Apple owns the FairPlay DRM system and it is only in use on items distributed via the iTunes Store. Unlike Microsoft’s Windows Media PlaysForSure DRM system, only Apple can use FairPlay and it is not licensed to anyone else.
This will undoubtedly land Jon Lech Johansen in trouble with Apple Legal (and he’s no stranger to legal battles) and I very much doubt that any company will take up Jon’s offer considering that they will very likely also get into trouble with Apple.
Still, it adds to the list of DRM-related stories we’ve been seeing recently, with both PlaysForSure and FairPlay being cracked and now FairPlay being rewritten.
[...] Read more at GizBuzz This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 4:40 PM and filed under Software, Technology, Audio, Apple, Downloading, DRM. [...]