Catshanghai

doubleTwist is DVD Jon’s latest venture into his fight against media digital rights management. He gained notereity nine years ago when he broke copy protection on DVDs.

doubleTwist is a Windows download that removes copy protection from music purchased from the Itunes Store. It converts files from protected AAC into MP3s that can be played on any computer or portable media player. This means I can use doubleTwist to liberate my Itunes purchases so they can be played on my cellphone and Ubuntu computer. Best of all, doubleTwist is free to download and use.

It is already possible to strip out the DRM by burning protected songs to a CD before reripping them, but this is time consuming and it degrades the sound quality. This interface makes the process as easy and as intuitive as using Itunes.

I spent some time trying out this software and I have mixed feelings. I am grateful that my songs can now be played on any device, but the software struggled on my aging Dell laptop and I kept on having to enter my Itunes password.

History is turning against DRM to the extent that Amazon and Itunes are both selling unprotected music.

The social feature of this software will make it very easy for people to to share purchased music with their Facebook friends. There is even a widget that lets your friends send music to your computer from your Facebook page. This is just going to give fuel to the recording industry’s claims that the Internet is a cause of piracy. If the software just converted music into MP3s then doubleTwist could argue they are giving people fairuse rights to enjoy music they have already bought. Copying and sharing purchased music is a clear breach of copyright even if you think it should live in the public domain.

I expect to see the RIAA file a suit against doubleTwist for breaching the Digital Milenium Copyright Act, because the software is giving people the means to bypass copy protection. Making it easy for people to share copyrighted music will also get doubleTwist in trouble. Does anyone remember the Napster Case?