DVD Jon eyes Apple
p2pnet.net News:- DVD Jon Lech Johansen has something new in the works, "and it’s a big piece of fruit," writes Liz Gannes on GigaOM, going on:
"He has reverse-engineered Apple’s Fairplay and is starting to license it to companies who want their media to play on Apple’s devices. Instead of breaking the DRM (something he’s already done), Jon has replicated it, and wants to license the technology to companies that want their content (music, movies, whatever) to play on Apple devices. This may not be good news for iTunes the store, but it could make the iPod even more popular."
Johansen transplanted himself from Norway to San Francisco almost exactly a year ago.
He was working for Mike Robertson of MP3.com and, more lately, of Lindows (oops, Linspire) fame. But that apparently that didn’t last for long and now he’s teamed up with Monique Farantzos, "who had contacted him after reading a Wall Street Journal profile of him last fall," says GigOM.
"The two now live in the Mission District and devote their time to DoubleTwist Ventures4, which is Johansen’s first major attempt at commercializing his hacking. They haven’t raised any outside money because they have already found at least one (undisclosed) paying customer."
Johansen and Farantzos, "went down to Cupertino for an audience with King Jobs, but weren’t terribly specific about their new company’s plans. Jobs apparently warned that while Apple was not a litigious company, other tech firms might not take kindly to whatever DVD Jon might be up to. Ha!"
According to Gannes, "Johansen doesn’t think what he’s doing is illegal; he’s adding DRM rather than breaking it. He and Farantzos were giddy about the prospect of Apple’s iTV, hoping companies will pay up to get movies on the set-top box when it comes out, after seeing the ill effects of being shut off the iPod. Spurned by Apple? Step right up."
Farantzos, meanwhile, is an, "icubator for a social networking startup," says p2p-blog.
"Reverse engineering proprietary rights management technologies seems to be the second leg of the stool. Looks like something to keep an eye on."
Also See:
GigaOM – DVD Jon Fairplays Apple, October 2, 2006
transplanted himself – DVD Jon moves to America, October 18, 2005
p2p-blog – Jon Lech Johansen leaves MP3Tunes.com, June 8, 2006
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October 3rd, 2006 at 12:20 am
So I hope. We could have another bnetd case on our hands, because the iTunes terms of service includes a reverse engineering clause:
“You agree not to attempt to, or assist another person to, circumvent, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise tamper with any of the security components related to such Usage Rules for any reason whatsoever.”
- http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/service.html
One big difference between this situation and bnetd: This would go to the Ninth Circuit instead of the Eighth. Yes, the same Ninth Circuit that shot down a copyright lawsuit against reverse engineering in Sega v. Accolade (1992), and again in Sony v. Connectix (2000).
So living in San Francisco is good news for DVD Jon; bad news for any Apple lawyers wanting to fish for liability.
There is also a California statute that renders non-competition agreements unenforceable: California Business & Professions Code Section 16600. Even if 16600 doesn’t literally apply to no-reverse clauses (it’s a stretch), 16600 could easily be interpreted to mean California has a strong public policy against unfair restraints on trade/competition. If this goes to court, I’d like to see the 16600 / public policy defense raised; the court could rule that all no-reverse clauses violate 16600 or public policy, and are therefore unenforceable.