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Oh boy, what skill!

Feb 19, 08 - 10:14 am Comment from: JadisOne

This is legal, how? And since the iPod is the #1 media player, this is needed, where? Plus, you can burn and re-rip your own music if you want. Or just buy from Amazon MP3.

Sorry, but the analogy of a music file being the same as an email just doesn't wash with me.

"No push back" to when making it possible to take what does belong to them? You have got to be kidding.

Actually, this looks to be an all inclusive media service. videos, music, photos etc. are they just a hosting and conversions service???

Anyone make more sense about what their service is going to do? PS, of course going for pc people makes sense since its such a pain to do anything there, but what is the issue vs Macs? Is there really a service provided.?

Feb 19, 08 - 10:21 am Comment from: MacSheikh

@ JadisOne

Exactly what i was thinking. Even if you absolutely hate iTunes Store, Amazon MP3 awaits. So why this?

Feb 19, 08 - 10:29 am Comment from: madgunde

With Apple already moving towards DRM-less music tracks (you no longer have a choice, if the song is DRM-free, it's only offered DRM-free for the same price as DRM tracks), this new venture seems to not have much of a future.

Still, handy to have a tool to unlock all my previously purchased DRM content.

He was looking at a looming future where no one would need his "service" (iTunes begun to sell MP3, plus the Amazon store... more than likely, this would be MOST useful for those with subscription tracks from all the WMA services). So, they had to jump in now.

If anyone's going to go after him, it MAY be Apple (unless he asks that you allow him to authorize one of his computers to play your files) but more than likely to be the record companies. It'll be fun to see how it plays out.

It looks like copy protection breaking which is ILLEGAL! No push back sure. Lawsuit YES!!!. The RIAA, Apple, you name it will be all over them in no time.

And I'm perfectly happy with iTunes the way it is. Buy and iPod if you want to use the service so bad. Those other players are crap compared to the iPod anyways so why go for second best when you can have it all and LEGALLY TOO!

I'm sorry, but this DVD Jon is starting to look so old-fashioned and "Doesn't Get It". What's with the ripping off of intellectual property?

Sorry, there are hackers and there are pirates... in my book DVD Jon's no hacker hero... he's a pirate looking for cheap publicity... or in this case making a business model out of cheating.

Sorry, it may just be me.

Feb 19, 08 - 10:52 am Comment from: macaholic

No amount of fancy weasel words about "sharing" with family and friends, can change the fact that this is stealing. An email is not the same thing as a song or a movie.

Feb 19, 08 - 11:18 am Comment from: Demon

Apple will not care. But UMG and the subscription services are going to have a boxed lunch as this will kill their model, Because subscription services you are allowed to play the track but not Burn them to CD's. This basically bypasses their DRM, this will force the labels to sue the crap out of them or end the subscription fantasies they keep having for big profits.

It is faster o buy a DRM track on iTunes and burn a CD and re-import. Why do I need this software. It sounds like this is what he is doing anyway without the CD media (what I like to call a "Backup")

Feb 19, 08 - 11:39 am Comment from: Willie G

People like this do so much to set back the cause of DRM-Free media files. With corporations seeing the efforts being put into to stealing, their ability to trust the public at large diminishes, and they feel the need to step up their schemes rather than letting them go. Its reactionary, its human nature. DVD Jon, apparently knows this and seeks to profit from it, under the guise of being a modern day Robin Hood.

This could have been useful to me just the other day actually. I was in a rental car that did not have an iPod hook up. I wanted to burn an mp3 CD (so I didn't have to have a mess load of cds with me) to take about 50 songs with me for my trip. (the head unit was capable of playing mp3s to my surprise)

iTunes would not let me burn my purchased music to an mp3 CD. I had to burn 5 discs as regular cds then re-import the songs as mp3s to be able to go back and burn a single concise cd. HUGE pain! Especially since I paid for the music instead of pirating it on limewire. I guess I should have just taken 5 cds with me and fumbled around with them in the car.

@ Whatever

Actually it's not if you have a bunch of music that needs to convert. For 50 songs it took over 1.5 hours on a decked out mac pro to burn regular cds, re-import as mp3s, and re-burn as an mp3 cd.

@Tom V

What rental car did you rent that allows MP3 CD? I have yet to get into a car with a factory radio that played MP3's. Please tell.

A Jeep Cherokee

You're kidding right? Clearly you haven't gone car shopping since about 2004. Most cars can be had with an MP3 CD-player, at least as an option.

Feb 19, 08 - 12:24 pm Comment from: ken1w

DVD Jon has real bad timing. To release such a service just as music is headed toward being DRM-free is money lost for the venture capital firm. At least he's smart enough to waste other people's money...

This is a very good thing for Apple as it means more revenue. iTMS still has the largest selection of online music - now it can be made to work with any media player or OS.

Not only that, but I can now strip tracks of FairPlay DRM that I'd already purchased prior to DRM-less availability on iTunes.

This is a WIN for consumers and Apple alike. Another shot across the bow of the RIAA and their ilk. Well done as usual, DVD Jon.

DVD Jon would rather get the attention he so desperately wants, rather than getting paid millions by Apple to crack in house and exploit vulnerabilities.

Feb 19, 08 - 12:30 pm Comment from: LordRobin

This is insanity. I could see something like this being distributed as an "underground" free open-source app, but to sell something like this for a profit? This will run afoul of the DMCA and all of its clones worldwide.

I think I'll see what the piracy apologists on Slashdot are saying about this.

------RM

Awesome!

It's a good thing to get back some of the FAIR USE people so happily give up.

Burn-to-CD-then-Rerip.... what a stupid defense! Do our landfills really need millions more trashed CDs? What if you have thousands of tracks purchased from a music store? It's foolish, well stupid actually, to hold true to that burn-to-cd defense of DRM.

Now, if we called him HD-DVD Jon, instead of DVD Jon, would he now be discontinued?

Now, if we called you dumbass instead of retard, would you still leave inane comments?

Anything that buries DRM and copyright is just fine by me. Copyright is dated and outmoded and the sooner it disappears the the better. And the same goes for dvds as well.

If anyone's interested I just finished testing Fairmount as an alternative to Mactherippper. It works just fine.

Wow...@KenC seems a bit perturbed by KenC...I wonder if that is the real HD-DVD Jon lurking here in agony. I actually like this product from HD-DVD Jon, its a total pain in the ace to screw around with the DRM itunes music files. I need them in mp3 at times to allow play on various devices. The whole burn to CD then import as mp3 and then rename back to its orginal name instead of "track 3" leaves you with 3 versions of a song you don't need. It also leaves you with a useless Audio CD which is obsolete.

Go on HD-DVD Jon I'm with you brohash...but lay off KenC will ya?

Video Production Las Vegas
http://www.hiproductions.com

Although it is presented as a new and innovatie feature, it doesn't do me much good.
Using my mac book pro, iphone and ipod-video, I appearently still have to wait untill I can get material converted.

then again, a couple of weeks ago a mobile content company ( nakko.com ) launched a service that automatically converts audio and video files you want to be stored on an ipod video or to service as a ringtone on an iphone.

Maybe a good idea for Index and northzone ventures to have a chat with these guys.

Good luck dvd Jon

Feb 19, 08 - 06:07 pm Comment from: Hm...

Here's an interesting tidbit from their website (emphasis added):
“doubleTwist” means the SpiceFlow Corporation, a company incorporated under the laws of Cayman Islands, having its registered office at PO Box 309GT, M&C;Corporate Services Limited, Ugland House, South Church St, George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, and any SpiceFlow Corporation subsidiaries or affiliated companies.”
So even though doubleTwist lives in San Francisco, their real headquarters are the Cayman Islands. I sure would like a tour of those digs...

This would be useful for Mac users only if you've p2p downloaded other peoples mp4/ac3 files. I fell for this a couple of times. I couldn't play the files and I couldn't burn a CD to rip because I wasn't authorised. Bummer.

Feb 20, 08 - 07:48 pm Comment from: Wolfis

It is precisely this reason I personally refuse to buy and ipod and support greedy rich jerkoff organizations like iTunes and RIAA and all the other riff-raf out there.

Last time I looked, the artist recieved pennies per track on a given CD times the number of CDs that were sold. This alone tells me that yes, the artist does make money, but not that much. The record label however, recieves ALL the rest of the money on that $20 disk. The artist's real bread and butter is the tour scene, as was reflected by a couple interviews with a couple bands I heard on the radio in the past.

In the past, when vinyl was king, they justified the $10 for a record and $15 for cassette/8track, the latter higher simply because of the cost of materials above that of a record. Now with CDs and DVDs so prolific I can purchase 100 for $10, I have a hard time justifying that huge markup, so I no longer purchase CDs for one or two songs I might like on it.

Online sources are fine, but the moment they kick in DRM, especially with iTunes and the iPod, I am locked into ONLY that device to play it on. Before, I could move my CD to any player out there, my tape or record...I had the control, not the other way around.

So my big middle finger goes up to these greedy suits with regard, and they lose out on the revenue because of the proprietary crap and DRM. I'll download the stuff I want through torrent, without the proprietary crap and DRM.

Speaking of torrent and the crack the guy made....too late Apple, too late RIAA, too late you greedy shits out there, the program is in the wild and living well on bittorrent. You can sue this guy all you want, but pandora's box is opened. And in the meantime, another hacker will come along and improve on the concept or break your next set of balls and chains you impose on joe blow public user.

Reap what ya sow I guess.

Feb 20, 08 - 08:13 pm Comment from: macaholic

So instead of helping the performer, whose music you like since you will steal it, get some income from the sale of his performance, you give them nothing! Because you are mad at the publisher of the work. Remember that the performers did enter into the legal agreement with the record label. Whether it is fair to them or not is not for us to decide. They are adults (since they can sign contracts) and have to live with what they have agreed to. It is not up to us to "punish" a record label for being greedy, if that also punishes the performer. Do a search for Dick Dale on YouTube for a short interview on his advice to musicians wanting to be successful in the music business. I don't like the pricing on Aston Martins, but that doesn't give me the right to help myself to one by theft. If you do not wish to pay for a legal version, then you are not automatically entitled to a free one, regardless of how you dress up the logic behind the theft. The misdirection arguments used to justify the theft of someone else's work (when it comes to music, and movies to an extent as well) is mind boggling. "it's just information, and information should be free" is one version. Fine. i will be needing your ATM pin number, because it's just information after all, and information should be free.
You get paid for your work, artists deserve to be paid for theirs', regardless of your feelings about how their pay is handled. It is their business, and they can be as smart or as dumb as they wish. Now if you stole their music and then sent them a cheque directly, then you would show that you have the courage of your convictions regarding your concern for how they are or aren't paid fairly. So, have you paid the artists themselves for their product that you have unlawfully consumed? Or are just a pickpocket with a slight gift for wordsmithing?

Feb 20, 08 - 08:32 pm Comment from: Wolfis

macaholic

My finger to Cheryl Crow and Metallica, both of which are staunch believers in losing money over this.

However, it is not because of them specifically. It is the thousands of other artists out there who are independant and actually WANT their music distributed online for free, their bread and butter being on the tour scene. I have no problem paying $60 or more for a concert ticket, I'll get quite a bit more out of the experience than paying $20 for a disk that might have a couple songs on it I like.

Incidently, there are also artists who are locked into contracts with RIAA and its subsidiaries, who are at odds with RIAA and its heavy handed tactics to go after an 11 year old who happened to be first on the long list of so called offenders pushed into litigation. Lars and Cheryl both support this kind of crap. <a > an example of one of the many articles I have read on the subject</a>

So ya, damn rights I feel that way. Looks like they are still far more financially comfortable than I am, in spite of all that lost revenue. My heart bleeds purple piss for them.