Meh, I'd don't think I'd use this because if it's using an analog hole it must be reencoding the music back to digital which means loss of sound quality. Only way I'd use it is if there were to be a method that is all digital. But hopefully it won't matter and the NY Times speculation is right, and that Linkin Park event will be used to announce 100% DRM free iTunes tracks.

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Transcoding...? Sounds like it re-encodes the tracks.

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Yes, and you lose 5% in quality in the process.

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There are packages available from the hymn forum (google it!) which will deencrypt these files without loss of quality, though they are also currently windows only.

As far as legality goes, provided you only do this for personal use, this would be a grey area akin to making cassettes. Apple's adoption of DRM free tracks on the Itunes store make their arguments against DRM removal extremely weak.

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How many days does apple have to put together a new version of FairPlay before the studios can choose to pull their content?

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1. This software doesn't "break" any DRM any more than burning to a CD and ripping does.

2. There is nothing new or unusual about this in a technical sense.

3. To recap, all this does is take the process of burning/ripping, remove the need for physical media (speeding things up in the process since you don't have to wait for actual burning) and put a nice GUI on it. Of course it plays it in "fast forward"; have you ever ripped a CD at 1x speed?

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Um, in either MP3 or AAC -- your only two iTunes Store options -- you've already lost the quality. Going from digital to analog to digital through this method shouldn't particularly cause any further quality loss than the standard trick of burning the DRMed tracks to a CD and then reripping them, which falls into Mike's "all digital" solution. And it takes significantly less time and doesn't waste CDs, which will outlast the cockroaches come armageddon.

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This has existed for years. The program TuneBite on windows also does this both for Windows media Audio/Video and iTunes Audio/Video. TuneBite also plays the songs 2-4 times as fast when it's recording so you can do a lot of songs in an hour. It's nothing new. I have known about the rerecording technique since way back when napster was not legal. I used to use Goldwave on Windows to record files while they played streaming over the internet or playing from a DRM'ed source, using the soundcard itself to "break" per say, the encryption.

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It's basically a modern day example of high speed dubbing.

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For a Mac program that also makes DRM free copies of your legally purchased iTunes music using the analog hole, see DRM Dumpster. ( http://www.burningthumb.com/drmdumpster.html )

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Simple, just don't buy music downloads that contain DRM, there are plenty of options available now. iTunes+, Amazon, eMusic. Hell even just buy the CD and rip it.

This rates a big meh from me too.

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I think you guys are missing the big picture.

This application is meant for you to go "I have all these songs from all these different places (CD's, iTunes, other digital downloads) and I want them all to work on this one device. Take care of this problem for me with the click of a button."

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I like there iPhone screenshots.

http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Download/SorrySteve.dt

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