p2pnet news | DRM:- The big news over the weekend was that Apple had reverted to character - ie, it was back on its DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control kick: you know, the one it’s trying to blame on organised music cartel members Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG?

“So, it’s finally happened,” reported ipodminusitunes, continuing:

Unhappy with other media players being better than iTunes, Apple have apparently decided to stop them from working with the new range of iPods.

Who does this affect?

This affects Linux users - there’s no iTunes for Linux, so popular Linux iPod management tools like gtkpod and Rhythmbox will not work with the new range of iPods.

Windows users who just plain don’t like iTunes and perfer an alternative like Winamp, Ephpod or many of the other iPod management applications out there.

But today, “We’ve won!” - the site announces triumphantly, going on:

Thanks to some inspired work by a few heroes, we’ve managed to work out how to get everything working again.

This is what we’ve found out: the hash at 0×58 is the one that matters. And we know how to generate it.

It’s a cryptographic signature combining data from the iTunesDB and a device specific identifier (called the firewireid) and some (formally) secret numbers.

Instructions for linux users on how to fix their iTunesDB files are here. Windows users are going to have to wait a little while. (For interested programmers, the code to generate the hash is here.)

The heroes in question include wtbw, nopcode, teuf, simon and many others from #gtkpod.

Let’s, “all hope that (if they haven’t already from the iPhone unlocking) Apple learn that fighting against us is pointless,” adds ipodminusitunes.

Not a chance. Steve Jobs and his Apple minions will continue to try to screw Macolytes and anyone else foolish enough to want to buy overpriced product at every opportunity.

Definitely stay tuned.

.Slashdot it!

Also See:
ipodminusitunes - Apple cuts us off, September 14, 2007
announces triumphantly - We’ve won!, September 1, 2007

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 6:40 am and is filed under DRM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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