File format
Songs are encoded using
FairPlay-encrypted 128 kbit/s
AAC streams in a
mp4 wrapper, using the .m4p extension. In practice, the sound quality is comparable to songs encoded at 160 kbit/s using MP3 or 128 kbit/s using Microsoft's Windows Media Audio
WMA format.
While licenses to the AAC compression and the mp4 file format are readily available, Apple has yet to allow their proprietary FairPlay encrytion scheme to be licensed to other hardware manufacturers, so only Apple's QuickTime and iPod can play AAC files encrypted with Apple's
FairPlay technology.
Motorola is reportedly working on a phone with a special version of iTunes to play songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store, but details on this have yet to be finalized.
Digital rights management
Apple's
FairPlay Digital rights management (DRM) is integrated into iTunes, which manages songs purchased from iTunes Music Store. Users are not allowed unlimited CD burns of individual songs, or to play the songs on more than five computers within 24 hours.
But they are allowed to copy the songs to an unlimited amount of iPods.
With the introduction of iTunes 4.5, Apple raised the number of machines allowed to use purchased music from 3 to 5. They also cut the number of times a user can burn CDs of the same playlist from 10 to 7. This adjustment was the result of the renegotiation Apple had with major labels. In 4.7.1, users were further restricted: they were limited to sharing their songs with five computers within 24 hours, rather than the previous five at a time.
*Apple FairPlay technology, however, is not unbreakable. A user can, for example, convert protected files to unprotected MP3 format by burning them to an audio CD, then ripping them back to iTunes. This method, however, reduces the sound quality of the recording.
Software (
http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips842.html) has emerged that can remove Apple's FairPlay DRM, allowing the files to be used without technological restriction.
Fairplay keeps iTunes customers from using the purchased music on any portable digital music player other than the Apple iPod. On January 3, 2005, an iTunes online music store customer sued Apple Computer, alleging the company broke an rust laws by freezing out compe ors (
iTunes Lawsuit (
http://news.com.com/Lawsuit+claims+A...tml?tag=cd.top)).
In
March 2005,
Jon Johansen ("DVD Jon") released a program called
PyMusique (
[9] (
http://fuware.nanocrew.net/pymusique/)) that allowed iTMS customers to purchase songs without
DRM restrictions. On
21 March Apple blocked access to the iTMS with PyMusique. A day later, Jon wrote in his
"So Sue Me" post (
http://www.nanocrew.net/blog/apple/itms47.html): "The iTunes Music Store recently stopped supporting iTunes versions below 4.7 in an attempt to shut out 3rd party clients. I have reverse engineered the iTMS 4.7 crypto which will once again enable 3rd party clients to communicate with the iTMS."
Reply With Quote
