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Shi**t Happens at SunnComm and Apple's iTunes
Missing the point on antipiracy technology
Here's a clue. Both SunnComm and the record company BMG, which uses the SunnComm system, told the Globe that Halderman's discovery (using Shi**t key on loading the CD to the computer bypass the protection) wasn't news to them. Both firms were well aware that their antipiracy system could easily be bypassed. SunnComm president Bill Whitmore said they were angry at Halderman for describing their product as "irreparably flawed." In reality, said Whitmore, MediaMax does exactly what it was designed to do.
It sounds like doublespeak. A system that's supposed to stop people from making illegal music files can easily be bypassed, allowing the user to make all the copies he wants -- yet it still works? That's utterly goofy.
Or is it? A similar system seems to work just fine for the company that's sold more music over the Internet than anybody else -- Apple Computer Inc.
Everyone knows about Apple's iTunes Music Store, where users of the company's Mac computers can buy pop songs for 99 cents a pop. But to persuade music companies to make their tunes available for sale, Apple had to devise a way to prevent customers from simply redistributing free copies of downloaded files all over the Internet.
The company chose a system called FairPlay... In addition, each file has built-in software to limit a purchaser's replay rights. You can only listen to your tunes on up to three computers. Install the files on a fourth, and they won't play.
With all these restrictions, why are so many people happy to buy from iTunes? Because there's a loophole as big as Boston Harbor.
At the push of a button, you can burn all of your iTunes onto a CD, in the standard CD audio format. This disk will play in any standard CD player or computer. More important, you can rip it into MP3 files, just as you would with a store-bought CD. Apple says that doing so results in lousy sound quality, but we've tried it, and the results sound just fine -- certainly good enough for casual listening.
In short, the antipiracy features in iTunes are nearly as easy to bypass as SunnComm's. Yet nobody's calling iTunes "irreparably flawed." As a matter of fact, other music-selling sites on the Internet have adopted a similar approach -- building some security into the download, but letting users burn the files onto "insecure" music CDs. Are they all run by idiots?

posted by Jerry permanent link