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'DVD Jon' Attempts to License Reverse-Engineered Fairplay

Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 3:45 PM - by

"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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Jonkun227 said:

member since 02 Mar 2004 with 238 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Oct 02, 2006 7:27 pm

"Apple was not a litigous company". Right.

That's one of the funniest things I've heard in a while. Probably the highlight of my day.

Thanks for the chuckle!

- Jon

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 1002 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Mon Oct 02, 2006 8:25 pm

And all this time, I thought they called him "DVD Jon" because he was the first to embed a flat panel under the lid of a toilet and make a slot for the auto-loading DVD in the water tank. And it made me wonder... How could he see the screen when he had to sit down?

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