DVD Jon cracks iPod code

October 25, 2006 · Filed Under Security · Comment 

DVD Jon did it again, the guy that manage to crack the DVD piracy code seems to have found a way to not unlock Apple’s Fairplay system, but by adding a layer of code that enable other manufacture the ability to built portable players that play the Apple’s itunes music.

It appears that Johansen’s technique involves tricking an iPod into thinking it’s playing an iTunes-purchased song by emulating FairPlay. According to Jon, this whole thing is legal because his software do not remove any protection.

When he was 15, [Jon Lech] Johansen got frustrated when his DVDs didn’t work the way he wanted them to. “I was fed up with not being able to play a movie the way I wanted to play it,” that is, on a PC that ran Linux….To fix the problem, he and two hackers he met online wrote a program called DeCSS, which removed the encryption that limits what devices can play the discs. That meant the movies could be played on any machine, but also that they could be copied. After the program was posted online, Johansen received an award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation - and a visit from Norwegian police.

Johansen, now 22 and widely known as “DVD Jon” for his exploits, has also figured out how Apple’s iPod-iTunes system works. And he’s using that knowledge to start a business that is going to drive Steve Jobs crazy….Johansen has written programs that get around those restrictions: one that would let other companies sell copy-protected songs that play on the iPod, and another that would let other devices play iTunes songs. Starting this fall, his new company, DoubleTwist, will license them to anyone who wants to get into the digital-music business - and doesn’t mind getting hate mail from Cupertino.

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