The number of efforts to open up Apple's iTunes and associated FairPlay
DRM has increased in recent weeks. CNet has
reported on a Stanford University student's ourTunes program, which allows
users to browse iTunes libraries on other people's computers and download files,
though not to play them if they are encrypted with FairPlay. A couple of
weeks ago, Jon Lech Johansen, of DeCSS DVD circumvention fame,
announced that he had cracked the encryption key used in Apple's AirPort
Express wireless networking protocol for sending audio from a computer to an
audio system. The hack enables files from music services other than iTunes
to be played through AirPort Express.
In addition, there are
rumors that Apple is licensing FairPlay to Macrovision for use in
Macrovision's CD copy protection technology, so that files on discs with the
forthcoming upgrade to the company's CDS-300 CD copy protection technology
(which already supports Microsoft Windows Media DRM) will be transferable to
iPods. Neither Apple nor Macrovision have commented on the rumors, which
come on the heels of RealNetworks's
reproducing
the FairPlay encryption for its RealPlayer Music Store, which now sells iPod-compatible
tracks for US $0.49 in an attempt to undercut iTunes.
A couple of things are going on here. The various hacks to iTunes are
further evidence that no DRM scheme is hackproof, and that the schemes most
likely to be hacked are the ones that are most popular. Apple has moved to
block some of the various hacks, but overall, there is no evidence that the
music industry is pulling licenses of its material from the iTunes service.
In other words, the music industry apparently understands that popular DRM
schemes are bound to be hackers' preferred targets and that just because someone
publishes a hack does not mean that all files around the world are suddenly in
the clear. (Although, interestingly enough, we know of no hacks to
Microsoft Windows Media DRM -- the DRM scheme with the largest installed base in
the world by far -- since Version 7, which now dates back 3 years and 2 major
releases.) It is possible to design cryptographic systems so that the
damage is minimized if they fail.
On the Macrovision front, assuming that the rumors are true, it is evidence
that Apple is gradually bowing to considerable industry pressure not to repeat
the mistakes it made in the personal computer world by keeping the Macintosh
proprietary. As much as we believe that copy-protected CDs are a Quixotic
and cynical idea, their consumer-hostility is somewhat tempered if tracks on them can be
played on the world's most popular portable music player. Furthermore,
while those who really want to pirate files can do so by copying them on to an
iPod and then creating another CD with MP3 files, this is definitely not a
scalable infringement process.
Apple's forays into the copy-protected CD and mobile phone market (via its
recently-announced
deal with Motorola) are cautious first steps. We believe that Apple
must open up FairPlay and leverage its early market advantage in order to reduce
the risk of being overtaken by the two juggernauts that could render it
irrelevant: the Open Mobile Alliance's standards efforts and Microsoft.
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