When the iTunes Music Store was first released I was firmly against it. I’ve always been proud of my CD collection, for whatever reason, and I didn’t think that buying an album, for not much cheaper, online was getting me the same amount of product. Primarily my beef was that some day when Apple goes bankrupt, or the iTMS (iTunes Music Store) gets shut down I wouldn’t be able to listen to my music any more. With CDs that can’t happen. The cat is out of the bag. If I woke up tomorrow and every CD player in the world was destroyed I could still build one and listen to my music.
Eventually I discovered JHymn and used it against some iTMS files I had gotten for free (from the store) and it worked. Stripped the DRM off with no reduction in quality. That opened the floodgates. The iTMS is insanely convenient. I get an urge to listen to something and a few clicks later I own it. A few minutes later with JHymn and it’s mine forever, no matter what happens to Apple. You can argue that Apple could close the AAC format, or make iTunes not play unprotected files, but that cat is also out of the bag. We know how to decode AAC into a stream of samples so as long as the file isn’t hindered with DRM my music is safe.
As of iTunes 6.0 JHymn is broken. It’s been an ongoing battle. DVD Jon has been fighting that battle since the beginning but a few things have changed in his life and iTunes 6.0 hasn’t been cracked. I can’t blame the guy. He moved from Norway to San Diego and got a high paying job. Chances are good that if he cracks iTunes 6.0 he’ll go to jail.
So with that my dilemma is back. I’ve bought a few albums from iTMS since JHymn was broken, but I’ve hesitated over quite a few more. More and more I go over to Amazon and buy the CD and wait for it to get shipped. It’s a shame, because nothing satisfies my impulsiveness like iTMS but I don’t like to accept the risk that if something happened to it I would lose access to, possibly, hundreds of dollars of music I purchased.
So what’s the point of this post? Just to let Teh Intertron know that I’m opposed to DRM too. I’m not the only one, by far, but I thought I’d go ahead and add my voice to the chorus.
And one note before people start frothing at the mouth. Note that I talk about buy, and purchase all over this post. I don’t steal music. I never have and never will. I believe in paying for what I use and I always do. But I also believe that once I pay for something I should get to use it for as long as I want to. I don’t rent a CD when I pay the money at the counter, I buy it, no matter how often someone tries to redefine the terms of the transaction.