Apple iTunes Fixes Digital Rights Management Hack
A group of programmers released a hack last week, dubbed PyMusique, which let the users buy songs from the iTunes Music Store without any Digital Rights Management (songs stripped of antipiracy protections). One of the famed developers involved with PyMusique application is the original developer of the DeCSS DVD decryption utility Jon Lech Johansen.
Apple has fixed this backdoor disabling the ability of the PyMusique to purchase songs without any copy protection. Apple had to update their iTunes application, which means that many users would have to upgrade in order to continue purchasing any new songs from their store. Apple said in a statement: “The security hole in the iTunes Music Store which was recently exploited has been closed, and as a consequence the iTunes Music Store will now sell music only to customers using iTunes version 4.7”.
Apple has in fact upgraded their Digital Music application iTunes many times in the past to keep such attempts at bay. They have even survived scares posed from rivals like RealNetworks. The company however for the time being has declined to say whether they are planning to sue the developers of PyMusique.
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Sushubh Mittal is the Tech Columnist of the Search Engine Journal and Editor of the TechWhack Tech Blog Network.
