Jun 10, 2004 11:21 AM
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God damn it, Apple. So I don't buy a lot of albums from iTunes Music Store, because I'm cheap and Denton had to get another set of gold fronts, but I've got a couple here and there, which I have unlocked with Playfair/Hymn. Now part of the whole shtick with Hymn is that even though it strips the iTunes DRM, it leaves your email address and other unique purchasing information in the protected AAC file, ostensibly to symbolically signify that Hymn users aren't trying to spread their fairly-purchased music files to the whole world, but instead to whatever devices they want. I unlocked mine so that I could be sure to play them after I had reformatted my machine. I'm pretty sure Apple has a method of reauthorizing your computer, but that's a hassle. But now the new version of iTunes has recognized that the DRM-stripped M4P files were purchased from iTMS and is telling me my (reformatted, reinstalled) machine isn't authorized to play them. So gee, thanks for that, Apple.
Get the fix after the jump.
Luckily, there's a way around it if you're handy with a hex editor (thanks to Slashdot user Otto for this; I don't want to imply I thought this up myself, although it is stupidly easy). Search for the string 'geID' in your file — it might be something similar, but different, but the screenshot shows roughly were it should be. Change that to something else (I used 'heID') and save the file. Voila, your music is free again and you've just broken any number of federal statutes. Welcome to the club. You were probably already a member.
The saddest part is this means the next version of Hymn will probably strip out the personal information from the legally-purchased files, since Apple is too beholden to the RIAA to look the other way. I love iTunes, I think it's a joy to use, but Christ, I get the message. Sorry I tried to play by your rules.
And uhm, I thought Kylie Minogue was the lead singer for Sepultura. Or something.
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