Episode: 164
Title: HPR0164: Copyfight Vol 2
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0164/hpr0164.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 12:37:27

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Hi, you're listening to Hacker Public Radio.
I'm 330 and this is Copy Fight.
As most of you may know, Yahoo's DRM music store is being killed due to a lack of interest.
So Yahoo's offering coupons for real network extravcity und DRM music store.
And this got me wondering, what are people going to do if Apple shuts down the fair play
servers?
Or if any of the myriad of other DRM music stores ever shut down?
What if the other stores don't offer you a rebate of any kind?
And just how many people could this affect?
If Apple ever stopped issuing keys for its fair play DRM, then just like Yahoo and MSN
users, iTunes users would be prevented from moving their music to different machines
or devices.
That would affect most of the 5 billion songs that Apple has sold.
So what do you do if you're trapped in this predicament?
Well really, the best way to not be trapped into DRM is to never start into it.
There are plenty of legal ways to get digital music.
To keep from having to do the steps described later in this podcast, you should look into
DRM free stores.
Off the top of my head, I can think of Amazon's MP3 store, Rhapsody, Magnetune, E-Music,
and Gemendo.
If you know of any others, please leave them in the comments.
Please know that the rest of this episode may have suggestions that are illegal in your
area.
Please follow these instructions at your own risk.
If you don't know what DRM scheme is used to restrict you, you can burn off the tracks
to CD and the CDA format.
CDA is the way that press CDs come from the store.
After you burn the tracks to CD and CDA format, you can re-rip the tracks back to the
track on your computer.
This method really sucks because then you have to tag all the tracks yourself, but for
most this really won't be necessary.
The most common DRM scheme is Microsoft's place for sure.
But what if place for sure isn't really for sure?
Well then you can download Fair Use for WM.
There's a link in the show notes.
I personally have never used this app, but it comes highly recommended and now supports
the new Zoon Marketplace tracks.
If you're an iTunes prisoner and you're on Windows, there's some really good news.
Janjo Hansen, also known as DVD John, has created an app called Double Twist.
Double Twist will go through your library and quote, unquote, liberate your iTunes library.
It only works with music as far as I know.
And not, you know, the movies and the TV shows and all that that are available in iTunes.
He's working on that.
It is stupidly easy to set up though.
All you do is go to doubletwist.com, click on the download button and follow the directions
that are on that page.
It will require a .NET framework, but Windows should resolve that dependency for you.
The one thing to remember is that if you buy DRM free the first time, you won't have
to go through these legally questionable steps to liberate your music collection.
For more information on this, please go to defectivebydesign.org.
This has been 330, and this has been Copy Fight.
Tune in next time for another great episode of Hacker Public Radio.
Thank you for listening to Hacker Public Radio.
HPR is sponsored by Carol.NET.
She'll head on over to C-A-R-O dot N-C for all of her TV.
