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‘DVD Jon’ Attempts to License Reverse-Engineered Fairplay
Sunday, October 1st, 2006 at 3:00 PM - by Brad Cook
"DVD Jon" Johansen, so named because of his ability to crack the restrictions on DVD movies, has not only reverse-engineered Apple's Fairplay DRM (digital rights management) but also wants to license it to companies who want their content to play on iPods. According to GigaOM's Liz Gannes, he and Michael Robertson have even set up a venture, DoubleTwist Ventures, for that purpose.
Ms. Gannes said that the company has one anonymous paying customer so far, and DoubleTwist this past January had a meeting with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, during which Mr. Jobs "apparently warned that while Apple was not a litigious company, other tech firms might not take kindly to whatever DVD Jon might be up to." She also noted that Mr. Johansen is "giddy about the prospect of Apple's iTV, hoping companies will pay up to get movies on the set-top box when it comes out, after seeing the ill effects of being shut off the iPod."
He doesn't believe what he is doing is illegal, even though Ms. Gannes pointed out that "if successful, DoubleTwist will eliminate Apple as a middleman to its own hardware. But in doing so, it just might help Apple sell more of that hardware. Apple enjoys fat margins on its devices, and perhaps should turn a blind eye, for now."
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