Seamless Digital Media Sharing For All

Techtree News Staff, Feb 20, 2008 1420 hrs IST

Jon Johansen, famous for cracking DVD encryption, has come up with a legitimate media-sharing app, which happens to bypass iTunes restrictions.

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Jon Lech Johansen aka DVD Jon is in the news again. This time, DoubleTwist Ventures, a San Francisco-based firm he co-founded, has developed a software named DoubleTwist; Monique Farantzos, the other co-founder of DoubleTwist, worked together with Johansen on the software.

DoubleTwist allows users to share music downloaded from the iTunes store across various platforms like computers, mobiles, and game consoles. And it's not just iTunes music and videos -- the software works for all digital media. (Johansen cracked Apple's FairPlay DRM mechanism last year.)

If that weren't enough, the software is free; it's easy to use as well -- media files can be shared by dragging and dropping, and one can sync different media formats too. It's only available for Windows as of now.

The implications are massive: people can now sync and share digital content regardless of device, anytime, anywhere. We will, of course, be waiting and watching to see what Apple has to say about this, and we'll also have to wait to see whether iTunes downloads are going to rise or drop. As is evident, there are arguments for both sides of the case, and everyone has an opinion.

Johansen has been in the news as early as when he was 15. Some might recall that it was he who developed the software for cracking the piracy-protection code on DVDs.

DoubleTwist is said to have received funding from Index Ventures, the European venture capital firm that has supported start-ups including Skype, Betfair, and Last.fm. This latest development is another landmark for the DRM-Is-Dead school of thought; to top it all, it's a legitimate venture, and the software itself is a free, downloadable app -- not something you get off shady torrent sites.

USER COMMENTS

good effect.......with sound system....

by anuradha, visakhapatnam, on Aug 29, 2008 10:44 PM, Report abuse Reply

wow gr8 news for music lovers itunes may effect from this software much...32%of total music album launched in usa is launch on itunes..itunes is money maker machine for apple inc.

by killer, ahmedabad, on Feb 20, 2008 05:28 PM, Report abuse Reply

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