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Legal / Ethical Questions of HYMN (from HYMN Manual)
A.2.1
. Why are you trying to promote music "piracy"? Shouldn't musicians make money, too?
First of all, I buy all of my music. In fact, most of the music I buy these days comes from the iTunes Music Store. However, I want to be able to play the music I buy wherever I want to play it without quality loss, since I PAID FOR that quality. I want musicians to make money. I want Apple to make money. I don't condone sharing music through P2P networks with the masses, though I believe making a mix CD or playlist for a friend is okay. I also think the RIAA are a bunch of crooks, but that's another story.
Secondly, hymn leaves the apple ID embedded in the output file, so anyone who shares the decoded files on P2P networks is bound to be prosecuted under copyright law.
A.2.2
. But if you don't promote "piracy", why release the program to the public and not just use it for yourself? After all, don't you know that people will misuse it?
I believe there are other people who want to use my program legitimately, just as I use it. I don't believe the majority of the people who use my program will use it so that they can share their files on Kazaa, especially since their apple ID is embedded in the files. Anyway, in order to use my program, you had to pay for music on the iTunes Music Store to begin with. These are the people who are willing to pay for their music. Besides, should a baseball bat manufacturer stop manufacturing baseball bats just because someone may use the baseball bat to beat another person's head in?
A.2.3
. Aren't you afraid of being prosecuted under the DMCA?
Yes. That's why this is an anonymously developed project. However, I didn't actually write the code that cracks the DRM. Other people did. I'm just using their code in my program. So, technically, I'm not violating the DMCA.

posted by Jerry permanent link