14 DAY TRIAL // Norwegian hacker DVD Jon is looking at a good deal of trouble, Apple's lawyers say, as he has released yet another by-passing program, this time enabling iPod owners to copy media by dragging-and-dropping files into a folder on their desktop. Mr. Johansen (24) is famous for developing the first program which attempted to bypass Apple's system for syncing the iTunes store with iPods.
The Times Online reveals that Jon Lech Johansen, aka DVD Jon, has been an "arch-enemy of the music and film indutries" since he was 16 years of age. At that time, DVD Jon was releasing the first software which broke the copy protection on Hollywood films.
Mr. Johansen has had many run-ins with the American corporation based in Cupertino, California, but, according to Apple's lawyers recently, he's likely to get a call from them this time around. DVD Jon is anything but scared, as he and his company (DoubleTwist) maintain that the service is legal. Apple's lawyers disagree of course. Their prognosis is that Apple will "almost certainly seek to shut it down because the law now specifically targeted technologies which attempted to circumvent measures such as DRM," the aforementioned source posts.
This is how the program works: by replaying a song in fast-forward and taking a copy of the audio track, the software uses a process similar to CD ripping - this means it gets around Apple's DRM, which of course, isn't too nice. It also leads to a 5 percent loss of sound quality, just like with ripping music from a CD. Whether it's legal to provide such a service or not is totally up to those who deal with legal stuff, not us. You, however, can express your thoughts on this nonetheless. Use the comments column below.
Some of you may also know that Mr. Johansen has previously offered a similar "service" to iPod owners, enabling them to play music purchased/downloaded via web sites other than iTunes. He was 22 when he "reversed engineered" Apple's Fairplay system and offered to license it to companies that wanted to offer content playable on iPods.
Reportedly, DoubleTwist's software will initially be compatible with Nokia N-series mobile phones, Sony Ericsson's Walkman, Cybershot handsets and pretty much "any smartphone powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system," according to the same source.