~ryanlowe/blog: iTunes and Rendezvous

iTunes and Rendezvous

Now that the Windows version of iTunes is out I can play with Rendezvous, which lets applications on different computers find each other. Rendezvous+iTunes means that I can listen to songs on my iBook from my Windows Machine:

iBook collection showing up in iTunes via Rendezvous

The discovery is automatic -- as soon as I start iTunes on Windows I can see my iBook collection and browse it, including the playlists.

Obviously the music sharing aspect comes into question but you can only listen to songs via Rendezvous+iTunes, not copy them. With DRM'd AAC files purchased from the iTunes Music Store you can't even listen to them unless the connected computer is one of the three you've given permissions to. That's DRM for ya. I've also password protected my collection so people can't listen to it while I'm on the wide-open school network.

Gripe 'o the day: So given that people aren't supposed to be sharing their collections with other people I find it's a little strange that when you play a file from a connected computer that the play count doesn't increment. At the very least it should be a preference.

Posted at November 14, 2003 at 09:11 PM EST
Last updated November 14, 2003 at 09:11 PM EST

Comments

Just curious, but are there any checks to stop someone from simply recording the audio output? (either capturing locally on the machine or just piping the audio-out into another machine?)

» Posted by: peter at November 14, 2003 10:31 PM

There are no checks as far as I can tell. But that's true of any digital audio format unless you have "secure hardware", ie. the DRM persists in software and can only be unlocked by a secure sound card. Yes, this is coming down the pipe if the media companies have their way.

But for right now once the player sends the audio to the sound card as digital information any DRM features are lost and the audio is recordable.

However recording this audio may give poor results. The analog audio produced from the sound card is from a digitally sampled source. When you re-record it digitally again, the approximations that were done in the sampling, unsampling (back to analog) and subsequent resampling will be magnified. It's liking making copies of photocopies, they get worse each time because each digitization is a sampled approximation of the analog reality which have been generated by approximations, ad finitum ...... :)

» Posted by: Ryan at November 14, 2003 11:01 PM

There was something on slashdot about this sort of thing the other day. Someone has a producted called myTunes that allows you to record the music that someone else is sharing through iTunes... they might be rethinking how iTunes shares music now to keep the RIAA happy.

» Posted by: Jim at November 15, 2003 10:10 AM

Here's a program for Mac OS X that records audio from any application:

http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack/

There is probably software like this for Windows too.

» Posted by: Ryan at November 15, 2003 01:07 PM

MyTunes http://www.cowpimp.com/ does not rerecord analog audio, it captures the MP3 or AAC byte stream and reassembles the original file.

» Posted by: Ryan at November 15, 2003 01:15 PM

Is it possible to hijack the audio stream? I know it is possible for streaming Real Media. I do it every now and then...just for educational purposes of course. Now the tools for hijacking Real Media audio/video stream are illegal...

...though I'm sure someone will create something similar for [iTunes + Rendezvous]. Hard for me to say how/when cause I've never used either.

» Posted by: roy at November 15, 2003 07:31 PM

Ok....I should learn to read what other people post *before* I open my mouth.

» Posted by: roy at November 15, 2003 07:34 PM

Testing 1,2,3 ...

» Posted by: Ryan at November 17, 2003 02:08 AM