The Norwegian hacker who cracked DVD copy protection at the tender age of 15 has struck again, this time at Apple. Jon Lech Johansen, a.k.a. "DVD Jon," says he has cracked the FairPlay digital rights management system Apple uses to protect songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Johansen claims he has written two pieces of software: one that allows non-iPod devices to play iTunes songs, and another that allows third parties to encrypt songs using FairPlay so they can be played on iPods without needing to be converted to MP3 and losing their copy protection.
FairPlay isn't patented, and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act's reverse engineering clause could protect Johansen.
