Gizmodo
Update: That was fast. It's busted—or fixed, depending on your POV. See the jump. Movie rentals from iTunes 7.6? Awesome. That pesky 24-hour viewing window once you've started the film? Not so much. And even if you get a little trigger-happy and click play only two MB into the download, the self-destruct timer activates. What if you need just a little bit more time? Or maybe a whole lot more time. We'd heard you could extend the doomsday clock by toying around with your system's date/time. We tested it and it's true. There is, of course, a catch or two.
Yesterday we rented 300 and started playing it only 5MB into the download—it was fast and smooth. Very nice. But now I've only got 9 hours left to experience the magic. With time running out, I closed iTunes, set my clock back and restarted the program to see if it does bestow a Lazarus effect. Sure enough, it did. I even got a little mad with power here, turning the clock back to 2003 to see just how potent this elixir is. iTunes yelled at me:
But when it started back up, check it out:
That's right. iTunes knows I was playing God and messing with time on a massive scale. But I got three years to watch my movie anyway! Unfortunately, this trick does not work to revive already dead flicks—once they expire, they're automatically dumped. I know, because I launched my computer forward in time by a day and got this:
So, this is a great way to extend the life of movie rentals by a couple of hours if you're running late on finishing it, but it's not really a practical way to steal movies, since your would have to live in the past every time you fired up iTunes.
Another idea was to set the computer's time up before we rented, thinking you could then set it back to normal and have as much time as you wanted. Being adventurous, we tried to set the clock ahead 50 years. The homemade XP Pro computer we used in testing wasn't built for serious time travel, however. The 50-year shift made everything go kablooey. So we tried the more modest jump of one year. It worked.
Giz-Certified Best Method
Take your system into the future (but not too far) before you click play for the first time, which starts the 24-hour clock. Start the movie. Then exit iTunes and return to the present. We did this with the second movie we rented, playing it for the first time in 2009. We came back to 2008, and now we have a whole year to watch it. This method obviously doesn't require as much careful time-shifting back and forth to extend your movies' life span as it does if you start playing around after you've started the 24-hour countdown.
Mac Test
We figured it would work on a Mac, but wanted to be absolutely sure, so Benny Boo gladly dropped $4 (which we may or may not reimburse) to test it on his MacBook. As you can see, it works:
The bad news is that it doesn't seem to work with iPod/iPhone, however. Benny's year-long rental is apparently too much of a time paradox for the iPhone to swallow, so it kept spitting it back up despite a restart and repeated attempts: 
If you've gotten it to work on your portable, let us know in the comments.
With automatic system-time updates, there's a chance any time you set will be corrected. In that case, you'd wake up to a long list of expired flicks. Frankly, don't count on this hack working for too long anyway since Hollywood is uberprotective of its content and someone's bound to lock this hole down tight within days. We don't know of a similar trick for Movielink or CinemaNow rentals—maybe you do—but our guess is that it's not doable.
Alright so it appears to no longer work. Here's what happened on our end. Before, we had set our computer date to 2009, and started playing Ratatouille (and Benny started playing The Simpsons) to start the 24-hour timer in 2009. Came back to 2008, everything was gravy. We go to play it again just a few minutes ago, and it tries to connect to iTunes, and then gives us a 5103 error. Benny gets the same deal.
So we delete the busted file and try a fresh download, this time with our computer dated to Jan. 24, a mere week ahead. Download starts, we click play and get the 5103 error—we couldn't even get it start in the future, which was the basis of the original trick. Adrian tried to extend a movie he rented last night by throwing his computer back a week. 5103 error, though coming back to the present he got it to play. We figured it wouldn't last forever.
We're still playing with it, so we'll let you know what other tricks we come up with as we confirm them. For now, feel free to go and play Jobs with time for yourself, and by all means report back. [Apple iTunes]
Comments
That's so funny. Most programs now-a-days (ie. 30 day product trials) don't allow for you to mess with the system clock. I guess Apple needs to learn more about windows. Just make sure you disable the system setting the clock automatically, or else it'll fix it in a few hours (the next time it syncs)
has anyone tried tunebite to remove the drm and potentially let you keep the movie forever?
Now that its gone "public" Crapple Macintrash will issue a "fix"
Why would you want to hold on to a movie for so long anyway? Once you watch it, just move on.
I want to know what those playlists are named that are so secret. What are you hiding, Buchanan?
yeah, what's the update on cracking the DRM on it and just saving the movie for foreverrrrrrr?
Problem is, if you buy the another movie, u have to set it back another year, and so on, and so on....
That's pretty lazy programming. Rest assured they will fix it very quickly lest they arise the ire of the draconian MPAA.... and stuff.
@ripfire4: Why would you want to hold on to a movie for so long anyway? Once you watch it, just move on.
I think the whole point of the post was that if you started it and then came back at a later time and realized you haven't watched it and now you don't have time. This little trick 'gives' you time.
I can still read your playlists. You should blur that some more.
BTW, you watch a lot of p0rn.
@Adam Frucci: Nothing to see here, move along plz.
Obviously the benefit to this is that before you watch any movie you could just set your system clock ahead 10 years then start the movie and change the clock back. then you could keep your normal clock time.
Cool! Except that now that this information is posted all over the web there's that much more pressure for Apple to patch it asap.
Anyone stop to think it may have been designed like this from Apple on purpose? Maybe Apple is all for week long rentals and not just 24hrs. While it's the movie industry that insists it be only 24 hrs.
The 24-hour "death-clock" is is one of the main reasons why I really have not used MovieLink all that much. A significantly better model would be 72 hours. Case in point, if I start watching a movie at 8PM on Friday night, then get tired before I finish watching(as my wife often does), finishing the movie by 8PM on Saturday is not always feasible. If I could finish watching it by 11:59PM Sunday, that seems more realistic.
Yeah, I've never understood the "I need to keep this movie forever and ever concept". If a film is so amazing that you have to see it multiple times, just go and buy it so the people involved in it's creation can continue to make more movies. Otherwise find 90 minutes to sit down and finish a film, then move on w/your life.
@Adam Frucci: I ran it through Photoshop magic filter and I think one of them says "Love songs for Jason"
Something weird going on here.
@Adam Frucci: Makeup Mix
Pillowfight Mix
Jus Mee N Mah Gurlies!1!! Mix
there's a 2038 bug in unix time epochs. try pushing ahead to 2030 and things should be okay.
<3
I wonder if he actually waited for the original 9 hours to be completed before truly determining that the self-destruct would kick in or not even though he set his time back to give him 3 years. After all, iTunes could be set to calculate what the remaining time is that it displays on the screen from the system clock, yet use another timer to still disable the movie. i.e., it may say you have 1830 days left to view the movie, yet still disable after the orignal 24 hours is up. Doesn't matter anyway since Apple will just correct the problem. It seems to me that if you want to cheat the system using iTunes, I'm sure there must be a way to record the video and audio that is streaming to your PC. Otherwise, just buy the movie, or wait a 6 months, to a couple of years for it to go on the bargain shelf.
No, i think the point is to "buy" illegaly a movie for 3,99.
Or, and I know this is a wild concept, if you want to keep the movie... just buy it.
My opinion is that this issue is exactly what the studios are looking forward to. So the next time they can yell "see people are indeed trying to steal content" so they'll stick to the old business model.
Sometimes I wonder... It is good and interesting to point out the faults of a system. But cannot people just accept some things need to be made step by step? If we, the users, start scaring the S...t out of studios the day they decided to take a bold (for them anyway) step in a promising direction, how can we expect a business model to change?
I am looking forward to the day movie rentals are going to be available in Switzerland. You will have to pay for legal content, get over it. I am interested in paying and am in favour of a sustainable business model in a win-win situation. Is it perfect? Not by a long stretch. But that doesn't make it inerently bad.
Some people said you should be able to watch the movie, once started, for 72 hours. Personally, if I decide to watch a movie, I plan my evening so that I can see it from start to finish. And this is what 99% of people usually do.
I really wonder, instead of all the comments bashing this model, HOW would you improve the model? Please consider that the studios are in the business to make money, and are not no-profit foundations...
I might sound angry, or even arrogant, but please don't get me wrong. I just wanted to add the perspective of someone who is extremely happy with the solution provided and thinks it is a long due step in the right direction. Moreover, I don't think messing with the system clock is going to make a point in favour of any argument. It just gives an excuse not to go along that road.
I just hope iTunes rentals makes it all the way to Switzerland and doesn't get cancelled.
They do this for a reason.. But I am sure they will just start tracking diff. time zones and so on their databases and will fix this problem...
But I am sure it will be a few weeks before that fix comes out..
Or you could just use Fraps or a similar screenrecorder to save the movie with.
red box + any dvd = win
netflix + any dvd = win
I mean who gives a turd about these lame download services
Is there anything that prevents an analog copying of media-- like playing with the output set to a VCR or DVR or DVD Recorder?
That's cool, my iMac's system clock is busted and stops running when you put it to sleep, then jumps back a few more hours for good measure when it wakes up again. Have to go into Date/Time to uncheck/recheck the auto-update all the time. Started doing it after Geniuses replaced main logic board for the 2nd time.
Couldn't this just be a bug in the thing that displays the time remaining? Has anyone confirmed they can watch these after 24 hours has actually passed? It seems possible that whatever displays the remaining time could just have knowledge of the rental date and nothing else, while the actual file knows a little bit more.
Just use screen capture software to re-encode the flick.
We need more than 24 hours big movie studios!!! Are you reading this??
@twylight: Who gives a turd about these lame download services? Only (potentially) multiple millions of people.
Hey, I wonder if there was a way to use the Leopard's built-in Time Machine to somehow extend the time of your rented downloads. Like, you start playing the file, but then, you use Time Machine to extract the earlier, non-played version of the file? Can anyone test this out?
well, no thanks.
No one can really tell the effects of messing with your system clock, who knows what software might get messed up?
I've been burned by the 24 hour limit with UnBox, never again. I just want to keep an HD movie around to demo my new tv to friends, why is that so offensive to Hollywood types?
This model stinks and will go no where. The proven model is the Netflix one, I pay monthly even though some months I don't get any new movies AND I'm happy.
Maybe Hollywood types assume if users are happy there's a problem and they need to quash it.
HEY!!! GIZ, would you like a real copy of 300? Apple and iTune is a rip off and all this write up about turning back the hands of time and who is playing God is nonsense.
could you not just use snapshot pro or simillar video screen caprure to record whats playing?
1) Personally, I don't see this as a direct competitor to Netflix of DVD rentals. It is more of a competitor to Movies On Demand on your cable box. I still go out and rent a bunch of DVDs, because I want the extra content and comenetaries and stuff, but sometimes, I just don't want to go out, and hit an On Demand. iTunes will let you pick up an On Demand from wherever you can get a signal.
Geeks will always jump through 11 hoops backwards in order to circumvent 'the system' (stick it to man! stick it to the man!), because it's..um, cool I guess. Or something.
All Apple (or any other company for that matter) has to do to make a success of this is to come up with a process that is widely regarded as fair and convenient to use (ala iTunes music downloads). Oh- and then market the crap out of it. The everyday-average consumer will then reward them for their efforts.
Having babbled all that, I'd like to say I hope to see either a longer viewing window, and/or a subscription option similar to the Netflix model, or the one proposed by some intelligent chap on Ars Technica awhile back.
2) as for the crack, has anyone tried setting your computer date ahead into the future, then downloading, so the program thinks the expiration date is 10 years in the future after you correct or settings?
so can you set your time forward, rent a bunch of movies, set it back to normal (so you have years to watch them)....then rewind the movies before the end so they never get dumped? eh? eh? or did I just figure out the point of the post?
Fucking apple and their DRM. Do they not get that companies like Amazon and Xbox live are offering full ownership for close to the same price?
They're just so smug...
@redkamel: Yes, but you have to start playing them in the future before you set it back to the present. Hitting play is what is what starts the countdown.
THe problem is this presumes you're only to try and keep one movie around forever - otherwise, you're going to need a second computer to plot out what time will kill which movies ... set the day ahead one and NORBIT kills 300.
You guys jut broke the DMCA. You are totally going to prison. Otis is going to have his way with you. :D
@yougottabekidding: I'm pretty sure it does go by the clock—when I set it forward, 300 did die, even though in "real time" it hard 8 hours left.
Hey Machete Bear, it's a rental and it's not apple's fault, its the MPAA's fault for not evolving with tech, apple removed DRM in europe and has pleaded to have this standard practice removed. Look up the open letter steve jobs wrote.
Anyway While this is a cool thing to do I wanna thank Gizmondo for letting EVERYONE on-line know. I expect a 7.6.1 patch to come out. omg! why can't people just not share everything so openly..
@matt buchanan: Had 8 hours left, even.