ITunes Music Store

The iTunes Music Store (iTMS) is an online music service run by Apple Computer with its iTunes application. Introduced on April 28, 2003, the store, which uses DRM restrictions, has since been a dominant online music service and has proven the viability of online music sales.

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 playlists, 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.

Related Topics:
FairPlay - Digital rights management

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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.

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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 has emerged that can remove Apple's FairPlay DRM, allowing the files to be used without technological restriction.

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Competitors accuse Apple of using iPod, the iTunes Music Store, and "FairPlay" (Apple's DRM-protected implementation of the AAC open standard) to establish a vertical monopoly to lock iPod users into using the iTunes Music Store exclusively (and vice versa). This "lock" has two aspects:

Related Topics:
FairPlay - DRM - Open standard - Vertical monopoly

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• Apple has maintained tight control of its FairPlay encryption, electing not to license it to other companies. As a result, other online music stores cannot sell music files encoded with FairPlay, and competing devices from companies such as Creative Labs and iRiver cannot play such files. Consumers who want to download songs from the extensive iTunes music catalog to their digital audio players have no choice but to purchase an iPod (or, as mentioned above, convert the downloaded files to an open format).
• The iPod does not support Microsoft's DRM-protected WMA format or RealNetwork's Helix-DRM protected files, so iPod users who wish to purchase DRM protected music online must do so through iTunes or circumvent the DRM of the files downloaded from the other store (which may be illegal). Music purchased from other online stores with these copy protection formats will not play on an iPod.

In July 2004, RealNetworks debuted an application named Harmony, which used a technological workaround to allow iPod users to convert files purchased from RealNetworks' RealRhapsody service into a FairPlay-compatible format which an iPod could play. Apple responded by accusing RealNetworks of "adopt the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod." http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20040729-4051.html Apple later released a firmware upgrade that rendered fourth-generation iPods and iPod mini incapable of playing files converted with Harmony; RealNetworks subsequently vowed to develop another workaround.

Related Topics:
July 2004 - RealNetworks - Harmony - RealRhapsody - Firmware

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On January 3 2005, an iTunes online music store customer sued Apple Computer, alleging the company broke antitrust laws by freezing out competitors (iTunes Lawsuit).

Related Topics:
January 3 - 2005

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In March 2005, Jon Johansen ("DVD Jon") released a program called PyMusique (http://fuware.nanocrew.net/pymusique/) that allows iTMS customers to purchase songs without any DRM restrictions. On 21 March Apple blocked access to the iTMS with PyMusique. A day later, Jon wrote in his "So Sue Me" post: "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." To this day, there are several ways to convert protected iTunes music files into regular mp3 files (See external links).

Related Topics:
March 2005 - Jon Johansen - PyMusique - DRM - 21 March

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