New Windows App Buys iTunes Music Store Songs Without DRM

by , 1:45 PM EST, March 18th, 2005

Three enterprising individuals have written an application that taps into the iTunes Music Store and allows users to purchase songs, but without Apple's Digital Rights Management (DRM).

PyMusique is billed as "the fair interface to the iTunes Music Store," according to its authors Travis Watkins, Cody Brocious, and Jon Lech Johansen, the infamous "DVD Jon" who cracked the encryption used in DVDs and was later acquitted of piracy charges for having done so.

Realizing that the iTunes Music Store adds the DRM to purchased tracks after the songs have been downloaded -- which enables them to be tied to specific buyers -- the authors of PyMusique created a front-end to the iTunes Music Store that allows tracks to be purchased and downloaded as 128kbps AAC files, but doesn't add the DRM at the end. The result is a file that can be shared with anyone and used however the purchaser desires.

PyMusique is currently available only for Windows, but anyone wishing to try it out should realize that doing so violates Apple's Terms of Service for the iTunes Music Store, which clearly states:

"You agree that you will not attempt to, or encourage or assist any other person to, circumvent or modify any security technology or software that is part of the Service or used to administer the Usage Rules... You will not access the Service by any means other than through software that is provided by Apple for accessing the Service.... You agree not to modify the software in any manner or form, or to use modified versions of the software, for any purposes including obtaining unauthorized access to the Service. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability."

This isn't the first time Mr. Johansen has taken aim at Apple: last year, he cracked the RSA Public Key for the AirPort Express and released JustePort, a tool that allows streaming of MPEG4 Apple Lossless files to an AirPort Express.