The Electronic Frontier Foundation Doesn't Like Apple's Attitude

by Sam Dean - Nov. 26, 2008Comments (18) | Trackback URL

Who knows why many open source users are also Macintosh users, but I've noticed a correlation there for years. Maybe it's because open source, like the Mac, rings of rebellion against the status quo. Nevertheless, if you think the love always flows in two directions, check out this post from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. According to the EFF, Apple's lawyers recently put the kibosh on an online discussion of open source software, dubbed iPodhash, which the lawyers perceived as designed to circumvent aspects of Apple's FairPlay digital rights management (DRM), used in iTunes. (The original discussion is removed.) The key word there is "discussion"--there was no fully realized application that actually cracked Apple's encryption.

As the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out:

"At the heart of this is the iTunesDB file, the index that the iPod operating system uses to keep track of what playable media is on the device. Unless an application can write new data to this file, it won't be able to 'sync' music or other content to an iPod. The iTunesDB file has never been encrypted and is relatively well understood. In iPods released after September 2007, however, Apple introduced a checksum hash to make it difficult for applications other than iTunes to write new data to the iTunesDB file, thereby hindering an iPod owner's ability to use alternative software (like gtkpod, Winamp, or Songbird) to manage the files on her iPod."

Apple's original checksum hash, an encryption scheme, was cracked within three days of its release. However, Apple has recently updated the checksum hash for the iPod and iPod Touch, and that piece of code obfuscation has not been hacked yet.

Long story short, a discussion of how to crack Apple's new checksum hash using open source software called iPodhash took place on a wiki dubbed Bluwiki. While nobody posted an actual application for cracking it, there was some illustrative code. You can view the communications that Bluewiki has posted regarding taking the discussions down here. There, the Digital Mellenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is cited as protecting Apple's FairPlay DRM scheme, because it is considered "anti-circumvention technology."

Attorneys at the Electronic Frontier Foundation are crying foul. "If Apple is suggesting that the DMCA reaches people merely talking about technical protection measures, then they've got a serious First Amendment problem," they write.

I have to agree. Talk is talk. Encryption and other forms of code obfuscation are communally practiced throughout the worlds of proprietary and open source software. Also, encryption predates personal computers and Apple by many years. Where would security software end up if people were barred, directed by lawyers, from ever discussing methods of disguising code?


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18 Comments
 

"Who knows why many open source users are also Macintosh users?"@

My conclusion for this was one of deductive inferences: (a) many open-source supporters use linux: (b) linux and mac are both unix-based-- my derivation from all this is that, although it seems that mac tends to take away control, that's mostly only possible @ the GUI level, assuming they want to keep Darwin intact-- so there's a lot more functionality at the command-line level in mac and unix-based O.S.'s (the others being mainly linux or open-source at this point) than Vista will ever have at this rate.


well, the question is really about mac and open source than Windows versus the rest, so that's kind of off-topic, but: much of open-source has its roots in command-line.


I agree about it being rebellion, but no so much against the status-quo, but against the very O.S. they're using- or more accurately, against the wishes of its makers. Having a jailbroken iPhone, I can't help but notice how Cydia, the open-source package manager for iPhones and iTouches, is actively competing with the App Store, and putting a great deal of emphasis on the developing of applications that are impossible for the App Store, due to constraints created by Apple. (i.e. video recorders, alternative music/video players, download plugins, springboard alternatives/customization, etc.)


From what I can tell, a good amount a good amount of open source users are also mac users, so that [as much as possible] they might "turn mac open source", or at the very least find ways to manipulate mac software to make up for its limitations.


After all- Mac is widely considered to have a very innovative, high quality operating system, software, and hardware. There are many open source users, some of which are programmers, who appreciate this, but can't use mac because of its annoying limitations. So what do we do?


Change it! Open source programmers change what they don't like using various workarounds and exploitable code, and those of us who can't program (or don't have time to) use the programs already provided by others, to overcome mac's limitations. In other words, open source users see potential in mac- we just need to loosen it up a little!


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I use a propriatary compression scheme. People think it's encryption. The compress and uncompress are open source.


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"Who knows why many open source users are also Macintosh users? "

Wtf are you smoking most open source user i know hate macs and there user for being "snobby"


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@anon - wtf are YOU talking about. There are several reports out there which talk about why Macs are extremely popular amongst OSS developers. They may not love them, but they definitely use them a lot. The built-in dev environment and tool stack rivals those available with Linux distros. Also, let's not forget Mark Shuttleworth's love affair with Mac OS X.


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"The built-in dev environment and tool stack rivals those available with Linux distros."


you're delusional.


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I know you guys like to see boogeymen around every corner, but the simple fact is that Apple is a business.


Like ANY business, they are obligated to protect their IP. If Apple, or any corporation knew about attempts to compromise their IP and failed to act, they would, by LAW, be making certain legal concessions with regard to that property, and by LAW opening themselves up to liabilities.


If you created a community for the sole purpose of hacking your GE toasters, and GE found out about it, regardless of their opinion on your hacks, you would get a similar letter from them.


Thats just the way it is.

Dont hate the playa, hate the game.


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you guys missed the point of the entire article. Its not whether mac matters, its not about open source, its about the ability to talk to other people, to convey information from one person to another. Apple says that if it can ultimately affect their bottom line and control over users then its bad and fires up the legal team to halt communication.


This is not that different from other companies, several times different mifare implementations have been deployed, found insecure, and then the reporters are sued to try to keep the flaws secret. Cisco has also sued to keep flaws about its products secret.


There is a larger issue here than whether or not you can write the hash file on an ipod and be able to sync with other software than the apple issued software, the issue is more of corporate responsibility, whether or not corporations should be able to censor speech through laws that are questionable in their application (such as the DMCA saying you cant discuss how to write a hash file, note no code, programs, executables, or anything else that would break DRM was present, only the discussion about how you can write to a hash file was being done, talk, speech/press).


So please lets not get into some multipage argument over whether or not mac users use open source, whether or not FOSS people like/dislike mac users, they miss the point and become distracting to the real and somewhat larger issue.


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this is simple, don't make the mistake of buying an Apple MP3 player. there are plenty of excellent players out there that are just as good or better than the iPOD , just because it doesn't have the Apple name on it doesn't make it bad in some way, matter of fact reliability on Apple Mp3 players isn't even all that good compared to ones costing one third the price.


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Why does the EFF fight so hard for the right to encryption and then turn around and get upset when Apple actually uses it? Would they defend the hash cracking if the NSA were to do it?


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Not only a first amendment right problem - it should also be looked at as a monopoly protection thing. I, as an iPod owner, can not use non-iPod software. I like iTunes, so this would not really faze me, except that iTunes is not available for all operating systems that play MP3's. Linux, especially.


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"Why does the EFF fight so hard for the right to encryption and then turn around and get upset when Apple actually uses it? Would they defend the hash cracking if the NSA were to do it?"


The EFF believes in electronic freedom. And yes, they would defend the NSA (well, they would defend them with actual lawyers because I am sure the NSA has their own). The point here is people are cracking the encryption _on their own files_, which should be perfectly legal. The EFF defends your RIGHT to encrypt something, but it also defends your RIGHT to decrypt something. This is about rights, not about encryption.


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But it's not even about decrypting something, it's about talking about decrypting it!


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Why doesn't apple just let us run iTunes on Linux? Then this whole issue would go away, and a lot more people would buy iPods (not that there is any shortage of them already).


Is apple that scared of Linux? For as much as I'd like to see Linux realy, really take off on the desktop, it seems as if it will always be clunky and full of gotcha's.


Give us iTunes on Linux and I'll buy an iPhone too!


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Shhh...

Remember that guy on the big screen in that Apple advertisement a few years back?

He's listening, reading, whatever...

So don't even think about communicating your thoughts to another person, by voice, or in writing...

Heck don't even think...

++++++++++++++++++++


Oh as far as not hating the "player", but only the "game"...

If the player doesn't stand up for what is right, you end up with something like Rollerball. Try reading or watching that story. (Not the remake mind you.)


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Open Source is the big promise that has never been delivered to the masses and never will. How about making a DRM that protects the artist, instead of developing new ways of STEALING artist creative work. Who cares about the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who ever they are. Make something useful for the massive, instead of cracking someone code.


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Sorry, I know it's just a small point in the article, which was otherwise informative, but this is absurd:


"the Mac rings of rebellion against the status quo."


If this article had been written ten years ago then that could be true. That this statement is current just illustrates the diabolical genius of The Apple -- the fact that someone in today's world can quote from Adbusters, call themselves savvy to all the corporate sorcery of "prison planet" Earth, and at the same time buy in to the most insidious ad campaign of this decade. Does anyone seriously still believe that they are "thinking different"?


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OSS users like Mac because it's like Linux, and not Windows, but you can get software to run on it without the kind of problems you get with Linux. I use SuSE 11.0 and it's great, but installing software is still a pain in the arse


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Open Source is the big promise that has never been delivered to the masses and never will. How about making a DRM that protects the artist, instead of developing new ways of STEALING artist creative work. Who cares about the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who ever they are. Make something useful for the massive, instead of cracking someone code.


0 Votes
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