Apple Hacking Could Be Good for iTunes

Oct. 25, 2006 — -- Apple Computer Inc. today had no comment on reports that a well-known hacker had cracked the code containing the restrictions that prevent iTunes music products from being replayed on any other player than the iPod.

A 22-year-old Norwegian, John Lech Johansen, aka "DVD Jon," claims to have unlocked the playback restrictions placed on downloaded music not only by Apple but by some of its competitors too.

Johansen became famous when he was only 15 by posting software that unlocked the scrambling system used by the film industry to prevent illegal copying of DVDs. But this time, Jon's latest effort may not carry the word "illegal."

Apple uses copy-protection software to make sure music downloaded from its iTunes Music Store cannot be played back on devices other than the iPod. Similar restrictions are imposed by many other online music stores to prevent their songs from being played on the iPod because Apple doesn't support those systems.

Johansen has told many in the Internet industry that he got around Apple's restrictions by "reverse engineering," creating a code that mimics the company's restrictions. That is important legally.

U.S. law, according to lawyers at the Electronic Freedom Foundation, may support what Johansen has done.

"It is called interoperability," says Corynne McSherry, a lawyer at EFF. "Johansen has done his best not to raise a legal issue."

The law protects interoperability so that a new digital product developed by one company works with other software it doesn't control.

Think Microsoft and Web browsers.

The theory behind the law, McSherry says, is that software produced by different companies should be able to work together so competition isn't stifled.

"You have to be sure that my software operates with their technology so as a company, I can offer something new, in short, so that my software works with their software," she says. "We like competition in the United States, so that one company doesn't own all future development."