TechSmec.com

DVD Jon and Apple In Fragile Standoff

October 3rd, 2006

DVD Jon, the erstwhile thorn in the side of any company who hopes to use DRM to protect their products, has reportedly hacked Apple’s Fairplay technology. If you’re not familiar with Fairplay, that’s the system that ensures that music purchased from Napster or Coke Music, or indeed any other online music store, won’t play on an iPod. Boo, hiss, we say to Apple about this, and so does Jon.

TechSmec.com is a little confused. Over a year ago we reported that DVD Jon, or Jon Johansen to give him his full and legal monicker, was now on the payroll at Apple, having annoyed Steve Jobs so much that he adopted the ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ approach. However, at some point in the last 18 months that must have gone sour as Jon is back and has reportedly added a layer on top of Fairplay that allows music sold from sources other than iTunes to play on an iPod. It’s the fact that he is adding to Fairplay, not hacking it, that makes Jon confident that this time, he is on the right side of the law.

Jon was so confident that Apple wouldn’t be able to find fault with his new software that he approached Steve Jobs himself about it. The big man was apparently calm and didn’t immediately reach for the phone to call his lawyers, but the blogsphere doesn’t expect that situation to last for long.

Entry Filed under: Portable Music