Free Your Media With DoubleTwist, a DRM Stripping App Anyone Can Use
Amazon and, to a lesser extent, the iTunes Store, are already ditching DRM, and the days of strictly regulating how you use the music and video files you legally own are coming to an end. But if you don’t want to wait for DRM to expel its last breath, a new application by the name of DoubleTwist can free your files today.
There has long been a variety of ways to strip DRM from your files, but most of them require some degree of computer savvy. However, that’s about to change thanks to DoubleTwist, a new application from DVD Jon, the man notorious for cracking the DVD code and reverse-engineering Apple’s FairPlay DRM.
DoubleTwist’s main goal is to make stripping DRM so easy even your grandparents can do it, and judging by this early release, it’s going to succeed.
DVD Jon (whose real name is Jon Lech Johansen) and partner Monique Farantzos have manage to create an application that will strip DRM from your music and video libraries with virtually no effort on your end.
“We’ve built a format agnostic solution that handles the complexity of file and device compatibility so consumers don’t have to,” Johansen says in press release.
DoubleTwist is a free Windows XP/Vista download (a Mac version is in the works) that looks at the media files on your hard drive to find and convert any DRM-protected music or video. The DRM removal happens in the background with DoubleTwist essentially playing the file silently and re-recording it as a non-DRM file.
The application integrates with your iTunes library as well, but DoubleTwist will only convert songs you own or are authorized to play in iTunes.
DoubleTwist isn’t limited to music either — it works on video as well. It also claims to work with external devices (Sony PSP and just about any phone that can download music). When you plug in your Windows Mobile device, for instance, DoubleTwist will launch and scan all the media files performing any necessary format conversions and DRM removal.
Thus far it doesn’t work with iPods or iPhones, but the company claims that support for both is in the works.
Once your files are converted, you can sync them to a separate device, or share them with other DoubleTwist users.
The thing most likely to cause aneurysms over at the RIAA and MPAA headquarters is that DoubleTwist also offers a file sharing app built on the Facebook platform, which means sharing your newly liberated music and video files is equally easy — just select any number of music or video files (up to 10MB) and upload them through the Facebook widget. The widget will convert them (if the desktop app hasn’t already) and send them off to your friends.
If all this sounds too good to be true, you’re probably right. A couple of things I didn’t like: The application requires the .NET v2 framework and it forces you to create an online account, which means it’s traceable should DoubleTwist ever get subpoenaed.
And there’s an excellent chance we’ll see a flurry of lawsuits against DoubleTwist in the near future since the application most likely runs afoul of the DMCA. However, since DoubleTwist is, according to the EULA, owned by a company named SpiceFlow, which is incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, U.S. laws may not be able to touch it. Of course I’m not a legal expert so I can’t say for sure.
But don’t expect companies like Apple to take this lying down. As a commenter on Slashdot wryly notes, “every time this dude releases a hack I’m not interested in using, I end up being forced to download a new patch from Apple for my iTunes/iPod if I want to buy new music.”
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