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Media (Apple) Businesses Media Music Operating Systems Software Windows Apple

Windows Program Enables MP3 Downloading From iTunes 254

Posted by CowboyNeal from the not-just-for-macs-anymore dept.
Joey Patterson writes "CNET reports that an independent software developer has released a program called MyTunes that allows people to share and download each other's MP3s on a network via iTunes." This is very much like a Mac program I saw a while back called itunesdl, which allowed one to download MP3s from friends who were sharing their playlists, exactly as MyTunes claims to do.
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Windows Program Enables MP3 Downloading From iTunes More

Windows Program Enables MP3 Downloading From iTunes

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  • Misleading Headline (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eaglebtc ( 303754 ) * on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:09PM (#7470344)
    I would like to say that the headline for this article is sensationalized and very misleading.

    If you read Slashdot regularly, you will find an abundance of published stories that seek to push hardware and software beyond their normal limits, thereby allowing greater freedom and possibly skirting the law at the same time.

    In this case, I was led to believe that I could use MyTunes to download from computers across the Internet, when in fact it is designed strictly for those who listen to Mp3s across a LAN--like a dedicated music server, for instance. It is not intended to enable sharing of MP3s across the global internet (even though it, too, is a "network").

    Thanks Slashdot!

    • Very informative - I must add though, that this does add a seemingly unaccounted for anamoly to the colleges, universities, corporatiions, etc. that are pushing for iTunes. After all, most of these places have their own internal network - which would result in hundreds upon thousands of songs being freely available at a finger's touch. ;-)
    • Exactly. This headline is way over-sensational. And in particular, the article eventually gets around to mentioning:

      Only unencrypted MP3 files are easily captured and copied using the MyTunes software, however. Songs purchased from Apple's iTunes store, which are protected by the company's proprietary digital rights management technology, do not work with Zeller's software.

      What would have been news would be if someone had figured out how to make unencrypted mp3s from iTunes music without the round tri

      • Re:Misleading Headline (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Spyky ( 58290 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:30PM (#7470498)
        Furthermore, if you put up a Kazaa share or a Windows file share or an FTP server full of MP3s, I can grab music just as quick as my bandwidth and your bandwidth will allow. With MyTunes, at best I can grab music from your iTunes share as fast as I can listen too it.

        It would take someone 9 days to copy all of the songs out of my iTunes library. This further separates iTunes music sharing from file-sharing services.

        -Spyky

        • Re:Misleading Headline (Score:3, Informative)

          by babbage ( 61057 )

          According to the guy's site, this isn't exactly the case:

          The CNET story on MyTunes described it as a "stream capturer". This is wrong. MyTunes allows you to obtain the exact original file, unlike "stream capturers", which record music that's streaming and save the recorded audio to disk.

          Apparently, MyTunes grabs the actual file somehow, which may or may not involve streaming in the usual "normal speed playback" sense.

          I wonder if that means that it grabs all the ID3 tagged metadata as well. I've been t

          • Re:Misleading Headline (Score:4, Informative)

            by laird ( 2705 ) <lairdp@gmail.TWAINcom minus author> on Friday November 14, 2003 @12:57AM (#7471679) Journal
            iTunes doesn't really stream the music in the sense of a bit-rate limited version trickle delivered. It's more like QuickTime's auto-start download, where the full quality file is downloaded and played, only it's never written to disk. But if you capture and save the file, it's identical to the source file, in the same format, with the same DRM, etc.

            This is different from operating a streaming server, where any sound to be broadcast is squished into a single continuous audio stream, at the desired bitrate and stream format. So, for example, I can run Nicecast (great app!) and it'll take whatever sounds play on my Mac, convert it to an icecast stream at 56K bps (or whatever I tell it), and stream it out. So if I play Protected AAC's, or WAV's, or movies, etc., it all ends up in one long stream, no files, no metadata.
            • Hmmm, that is interesting.

              I wonder if Apple will "fix" this to prevent this kind of abuse, by limiting the streaming speed to some ratio of the file speed. This could be done on the server side it seems. I think it is likely if RIAA starts making noise about this. As long as Apple doesn't capitulate and remove the sharing features entirely, I'm okay with it.

              I love to be able to sit on campus in the afternoon while doing homework and listen to music off of someone's computer. But I'm not interested in stea

          • Re:Misleading Headline (Score:5, Informative)

            by christopherfinke ( 608750 ) <chris@efinke.com> on Friday November 14, 2003 @02:56AM (#7472192) Homepage Journal
            Apparently, MyTunes grabs the actual file somehow, which may or may not involve streaming in the usual "normal speed playback" sense.
            I just downloaded MyTunes and tried it on the LAN in my dorm. Once you start a song in iTunes, it is added to a list in MyTunes of songs that you can copy. Choosing to copy a song takes mere seconds, and, as far as I can tell, it is a perfect copy: all ID3 data is retained, the size of the files is the same, etc.
      • Of course, the paragraph you quote is also misleading. Apple's DRM technology is not proprietary, but rather an open standard. Look no further than WMA for something proprietary.
      • What would have been news would be if someone had figured out how to make unencrypted mp3s from iTunes music without the round trip to a burned CD.

        My SB Live sound card has a "record" channel which is labeled "What U hear", which will record whatever sound the sound card is currently playing.

        My question: is this an digital-analog-digital conversion, or does it catch the digital info before it's converted to analog?

        Is this a common feature in most sound cards? It would seem like a big loophole for almo

    • Re:Misleading Headline (Score:5, Informative)

      by Caharin ( 690600 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:19PM (#7470423)
      Rendezvous Proxy [sourceforge.net] will take care of this for you. Use the two products together, problem solved. Easy as cake. I have used Rendezvous Proxy and it does work.

    • Re:Misleading Headline (Score:4, Informative)

      by single_user_mode ( 414420 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:37PM (#7470533)
      come on! nowhere does it mention the Internet in the headline! you assumed as such and when, god forbid, you had to actually read the article to find out what the post was about it was not as you anticipated... so, should /. start dragging the rest of the story into the headline just so you will not be disappointed?

      besides its a start, i am sure others will build on it, hey maybe you could contribute! & b4 you know it, the sharing of across LAN and Internet will be possible.

      whiner!
    • You're right, would this headline from maccentral.com have been better? 2003-11-13 22:16:35 MyTunes exploits iTunes Windows playlist sharing (articles,music) (rejected)
    • You didn't read that post properly... It says "network"

    • Re:Misleading Headline (Score:4, Insightful)

      by laird ( 2705 ) <lairdp@gmail.TWAINcom minus author> on Friday November 14, 2003 @12:51AM (#7471643) Journal
      Actually, I thought that "Windows Program Enables MP3 Downloading From iTunes" was unusually precise. It's a program for Windows that allows people to download files from iTunes shares that they can stream. Since iTunes only shares within a LAN, you can't see shares across the internet, so you can't download from them. It doesn't re-encode the files, so if they're "protected" they're still protected. So, all around, the headline was pretty accurate. Sorry you mis-read it, but you can't beat Slashdot up over that one. If it makes you feel better, there are plenty of candidates for that honor...
    • but it's not. the content of the headline is captivating and it makes you want to know more (i.e. RTFA). That's what headlines are for. The languange is not sensational and the wording is in no way misleading.
      Do you ever watch television news? That will give you an idea of what sensationalized headlines are.
      you were not led to believe anything -- you wanted to believe something.

      ps. very few people would ever use the word network to refer to the internet.

  • Won't work with music from Apple Store (Score:5, Informative)

    by da_anarchist ( 548175 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:12PM (#7470362)
    This will work just fine with MP3's, but won't work with Apple's DRM'ed files. For those, you need to actually authorize the computer so it can play the AAC file.
    • Well, yes if you were copying the file to your computer, but if you are recording the stream as mp3, then you can play it anywhere on anything.

    • This will work just fine with MP3's, but won't work with Apple's DRM'ed files. For those, you need to actually authorize the computer so it can play the AAC file.

      Exactly. What has been gained by doing this that I can't already do with Windows File Sharing across my personal network? All this allows me is to run a program on my computer OTHER than iTunes that allows me to download music from a computer that IS running iTunes that the 2nd computer has setup in its playlist.

      Pardon me, but BFD. SCO's team

    • Re:Won't work with music from Apple Store (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mariox19 ( 632969 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:56PM (#7470631)

      Exactly! And the article wonders whether this will cause trouble between Apple and the music companies?! How, when the encrypted music files bought from ITMS are still as protected as they ever were?

      This is a nice program, but a dopey article.

    • Re:Won't work with music from Apple Store (Score:4, Interesting)

      by hype7 ( 239530 ) <u3295110.anu@edu@au> on Thursday November 13, 2003 @10:15PM (#7470718) Journal
      This will work just fine with MP3's, but won't work with Apple's DRM'ed files. For those, you need to actually authorize the computer so it can play the AAC file.


      that won't be enough to stop the ensuing shit storm. Last time something like this happened (iTunes 4.0 on the mac) it was discovered that you could enable music sharing over the entire internet. The RIAA jumped down Apple's throat.

      This will be no different - it's the akin to setting up shared file folders all over a network (think of a college dorm...), except that iTunes is a pretty interface. I think when the RIAA gets wind of this (won't be long now, and I *bet* that's why CNet published in the first place) they'll be down Apple's throat like pavlova down a fat lady's gullet.

      The endgame: I'm now concerned that the feature is going to get pulled. Which is a shame, because it's innovative and it's cool [wired.com].

      -- james

      • Re:Won't work with music from Apple Store (Score:5, Insightful)

        by laird ( 2705 ) <lairdp@gmail.TWAINcom minus author> on Friday November 14, 2003 @01:06AM (#7471721) Journal
        "that won't be enough to stop the ensuing shit storm. Last time something like this happened (iTunes 4.0 on the mac) it was discovered that you could enable music sharing over the entire internet. The RIAA jumped down Apple's throat."

        The problem was the sharing across the internet, which was addressed by iTunes sharing being limited (in the first upgrade to iTunes) to LAN's, after which the record companies were fine with it -- people SHOULD be able to move music freely around their home, but not copy it to strangers across the internet. Since this program is functionally identical to programs that have been out for the Mac for many months, it doesn't introduce anything dramatically new, just evens up the PC users with the Mac users. Which is to say that music can be copied across a LAN but not the internet, and music sold by iTunes can be copied but not played without authorization. It's about the same as if someone turned on file sharing, and shared their Music folder to the LAN. That being said, I'd expect Apple to do what it can to discourage the availability of MyTunes, just as they did before with the comparable Mac app's.

        It's not like Apple could prevent people from using file sharing to simply share their Music folders onto the LAN. It's not as slick a UI as iTunes, but certainly adequate.

  • Open Source, Email communication (Score:5, Informative)

    by Caharin ( 690600 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:14PM (#7470370)
    Mr. Zeller,

    I recently was referred to your web page about your program MyTunes.
    Your program sounds most excellent, however I note that it is only
    available for windows. The internet community would most definitely be
    pleased if you were to make this project open source. Since you are
    charging nothing, you will only gain from this change.
    As open source software, it can be ported by other people, to mac OS X
    for example. Development would allow for greater stability, more
    features. Also, I believe sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/) will
    host such a page for free.

    --his reply--

    Hi,

    I absolutely support open source software and have been active in the
    community (see www.zempt.com).

    The reason this version was not open source had more to do with the time it
    would have taken to choose the correct license as well as getting all the
    files together, registering for sourceforge, etc.

    I'll hopefully be able to make it open source soon.

    Best Regards,
    Bill Zeller

    • The reason this version was not open source had more to do with the time it would have taken to choose the correct license as well as getting all the files together, registering for sourceforge, etc.

      When did sourceforge become a requirement for OS development? They provide some convenient features, but quite frankly, their future is sketchy. Searching is down far too often, when you view CVS, you usually get a warning that it's running from backups, and they request donations. Nobody thought Red Hat wo

      • Isn't VA Software's main business now sourceforge? I thought I remember that since they dropped the hardware business they decided that sourceforge was the future of the company, and therefor renamed the company to VA Software.

        Now if thats gong to work out is entirely another story, and where i think you have a point.

        -Jon
        • a brief history as I remember it...

          Once upon a time, slashdot was entirely independent. Then they sold out to Andover.net. Andover was previously an unheard-of software company, but they had a change of focus and started buying up various computer-related websites. Then they did an IPO, and were bought out by VA Linux.

          VA Linux original business model was to sell x86 hardware with linux pre-installed on it. When they IPO'd, thanks to IPO mania and some string pulling by Credit Suise First Boston (the

    • MyTunes going open source is actually a bad move in this case. Hacks & a more broad functionality for MyTunes will likely be accelerated by going open source. While another app or two is required to get full-fledged Kazaa-like sharing over the internet currently, this would be quickly integrated into an open source MyTunes. OSS development would probably keep ahead of any desperate attempts by Apple engineers to restrict illegal file-sharing by iTunes users, including AAC files.

      What would be the re
      • What would be the result of this? Major labels terminating their license agreements with Apple to sell music via iTMS, certainly. iTunes subsequently waning in utility & popularity

        And the RIAA would just love to throw a big "I told you so" back at the 'Net.
    • As open source software, it can be ported by other people, to mac OS X for example.

      How about using iCommune [sourceforge.net] instead ? It's been on OS X for about 1 year, IIRC.
    • As open source software, it can be ported by other people, to mac OS X for example.

      What for? Similar applications have been available for Mac OS X for quite some time. To name only one: StreamRipperX [sourceforge.net].

  • I guess someone goofed. Soemtimes, it isn't easy being the first ones to screw up. They shouldn't ahve implamented the filelist sharing. Something like this was bound to happpen. Now, they've threatened ticking off the RIAA.
  • MyTunes is for Windows. iTunesDL was for Mac's when iTunes first came out. That's basically the fundamental diffeerence. I can't speak for MyTunes since I don't actually use a Wintel machine (No I won't go there!!) In terms of exploiting the exploit: I'm sure you can change some extensions of videos/movies, software, & whatever else floats you and you'll be on your way to a full fledged {almost} P2P. I'll leave that for someone with Windows to try and post back for the rest of us!
    • Who modded this informative?

      You can't share other stuff with iTunes! That's nonsense! iTunes' music sharing works by sending an MP3/AAC stream to the other computers. It doesn't just do a blanket file copy without regard to file type or whatever.

      If anything, the parent should be modded troll for making such an inane comment pretending to know what he's talking about.

  • Yeah right... (Score:5, Funny)

    by AVee ( 557523 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMavee.org> on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:15PM (#7470384) Homepage
    From the bottom of the site:

    And remember, copyright infringement is illegal. If you have any question whether what you're doing constitutes an infringement,
    visit the RIAA's great anti-piracy website [riaa.com].

    Kissing asses here, scared allready or just kidding?

    • Re:Yeah right... (Score:2, Informative)

      by dq5 studios ( 682179 )
      Sounds like sarcasm to me.
    • I like when the RIAA says this:

      Plus, good luck returning a pirated tape or CD when the quality is inferior or the product is defective, as it often is.

      I think it should actually read:
      Plus, good luck returning a legal tape or CD when the CD doesn't conform to CD standards or play on your CD player, as it often is.
    • Hes kissing the RIAA's ass on the surface, which is a good idea for obvious legal reasons. But he really means it to be satire, on the inside, and the RIAA cant prove otherwise. Thats my take anyway.
    • All of the above. Which is brilliant. If the RIAA comes after him, he says, "What? Look it says right here, don't infringe!"

  • Isn't it obvious? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheSpoom ( 715771 ) * <slashdot&uberm00,net> on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:17PM (#7470408) Homepage Journal
    DRM = protection of the music files.

    But the player then decodes the audio stream and then plays it through sound card.

    Most sound cards have line out.

    DRM *will not* work for audio in this way.
    • You can also go out the SPDIF or Optical Out port, then come back in the other SPDIF/Optical In port. I think this trick gets rid of any "broadcast flags" or similar protection in the computer.

      Would someone please verify this little trick, if I have my facts straight?
      • You can also go out the SPDIF or Optical Out port, then come back in the other SPDIF/Optical In port. I think this trick gets rid of any "broadcast flags" or similar protection in the computer.

        Would someone please verify this little trick, if I have my facts straight?

        Not necessarily... the flags can still be present... the key to making that work is the fact that the filters (I'm assuming a Windows system running directshow) don't process/recognize the flags when taking data coming in... A simple fix
        • I believe there is something in the drivers that disables the digital output when playing back WMA encrypted content. I'm sure I remember reading that Creative issued a driver update in order to comply with this. To get a driver digitally signed by Microsoft requires implementing these "features".
          This is certainly one of the areas that MS will address with NGSCB. I expect by then it will be impossible to play back encrypted content with unsigned drivers.

      • It's called SPDIF (I forget where the slash goes) whether it's coaxial or optical. It's the format, not the medium. SPDIF does indeed include a protection flag; most consumer devices honor it, most professional devices do not. However you can build a device to strip it trivially; Just get a decoder and an encoder, and don't connect the pin for copyright between them. Hook up power, and run the outputs from the decoder into the inputs for the encoder, and you're done. It really is that simple, if you get th

    • Actually, the program has very little to do with downloading from iTunes or encryption, since it does neither. But I wanted to say something anyway. Would it be possible to get VMWare to run Windows under Linux to play an encrypted audio file through a virtual soundcard that is hacked so the straight PCM is saved to disc?
      • Apparently, someone's trying to make a living selling among other things a "virtual sound driver" for Windows machines. It's a sound driver that is able to write the stream straight to the hard disk. I'm not recommending anyone buy it (since it seems pretty cheesy to me), but here's a link talking about it [cdpage.com].

        • TotalRecorder (Score:3, Informative)

          by Otto ( 17870 )
          Well, that page is talking about TotalRecorder. It's available here: http://www.highcriteria.com/ [highcriteria.com]

          It's only $12, so it's not like he's charging a lot for it. It does have some nifty features. First, yeah, it sticks a driver in so that it can capture sound data directly. But it's got some other coolness to it, actually.

          -The 30 second auto-buffer lets you hit record after the song has started and still get the song.
          -Choose your own format, of course. But it can send the data to an encoder too (Ogg, LAME, wh

      • Run VMWare with either esound output if it supports it natively, or using esddsp, and you can use esdmon to tap the current esd buffers and dump them to disk. Then just run them through Lame, et voila.

        I have mixed feelings about the program in the title. It's a very cool hack, but I hope they don't take away the 'casual listening' on networks feature from iTunes under corporate pressure from folks who don't understand what an audio scraper is, because I really liked it. It really goes well with Wifi/Ren

    • You can already use either Ambrosia WireTap [ambrosiasw.com] or Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack [rogueamoeba.com] to record the audio stream as it's sent to the sound card (in digital form), at least on MacOS X.

      This is really no different that burning to a CD and re-ripping, which people have been able to do all along.

      You can also convert m4p (AAC protected) files to AIFF with Toast Titanium or with Apple's own iMovie, then convert the AIFF to whatever form you choose (Ogg, Mp3, non-DRM AAC) using iTunes.
  • Has this guy heard of the RIAA?
    • Considering he links to the RIAA at the bottom of the web page, I'd hazard a guess that the answer is 'Yes, dammit, read the article' :)
  • This is another exciting event in the evolution of a Business model. There are billions of dollars at stake and it is so interesting to see how this unfolds. The industry (whatever it will be called in the future) is evolving as we watch it. An emerging standard has just been defeated by new technology. The industry thought it had it locked up (itunes), and here they come. I still think they're on the right track, but ultimately, they're f---ed by technology and smart users. When does the truce take pl

  • This is good... (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by herrvinny ( 698679 )
    ..so long as it doesn't break any laws. Apple is the good guy here. We don't want the recording companies pissed at Apple. Unfortunately, my confidence in this program is vastly lowered by the "additional notes" section on the bottom of the MyTunes page:

    If you plan on stealing music, do not download this software. If you plan on infringing upon copyrights, do not download this software. Only download this software if you plan on acting responsibly.

    Warranty: There is absolutely no warranty of any kind
    • I'd give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Someone who spent his time writing software to obviously circumvent restrictions he didn't like also obviously is joking when he says the RIAA has a great anti-piracy website. Or, maybe your right and he's a worthless weasel, but I took it as a pretty funny joke.

    • butt kissing (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Read that last line there. If that doesn't constitute butt-kissing, I don't know what does.

      I think you're confusing butt-kissing with nose-thumbing.

    • Read that last line there. If that doesn't constitute butt-kissing, I don't know what does.

      You're right, you don't have the foggiest.

  • Old News.... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by rice_web ( 604109 )
    It's called KaZaa, or Limewire, or [fill in name here].

    Don't forget that Apple actually took this feature away after the RIAA hounds frightened themselves shitless over the potential power of such a system: filesharing that was completely decentralized. So after scaring every recording company, Apple yanked the feature, leaving only local network capabilities.

    If this were to become mainstream, music downloading would certainly become more interesting again. Having full albums, possibly CD art, and the lik
    • It was not decentralized. iTunes has no search ability; people were using sites publishing lists of iTunes streams to share music.
      • And I actually found out now that the software does not even allow downloading over the internet.

        Ooops.

        Previous software for iTunes on the Mac had allowed this, and I assumed it to be the same.
    • Personally, I never found Kaaza even remotely "compelling", considering all the spyware/adware it loads your PC up with as part of the install.

      Furthermore, if you *are* going to engage in "illegal MP3 file trading" over the Internet - it only makes sense to use the most obscure product and network possible for the activity. I wouldn't choose a tool like Morpheus or Kaaza that *everyone* seems to be well aware of!

      • This has long been argued about amongst p2p freaks - why doesn't "the herd" follow quality and get behind good p2p software? The answer is: people will go where the content is: more users means more sources means more diversity means less time twiddling your thumbs and waiting for a download.

        Once a given application obtains sufficient market inertia, it's almost impossible to wrench control away without shutting down the network entirely ( c.f. musiccity, napster ). And KaZaa has signifigant market inert

      • Shareaza [shareaza.com] is now the best. It's freeware with no spyware, and it supports P2P transfers on Gnutella, Gnutella2, eDonkey, BitTorrent, etc all simultaneously in one interface...

        Unfortunatly to many who read here, it's a Win32 app.

        The only thing that I've wondered for some time now is that I don't know what the motivation is behind developing this application for free other than to establish the Gnutella2 network... But that even seems like a lot of work considering how much work has been put into interfaci

  • Something's not right... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Qweezle ( 681365 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @09:20PM (#7470431) Journal
    This doesn't seem quite sound...this guy will get shut down. Hell, his own website contradicts him. He says this:

    Tunes is mainly meant to be used as a music manager and means of purchasing music online. However, in addition to purchasing music, one can listen to any of the music shared by others on a network. So, for example, if another person on your network has iTunes and decides to share their music, you can listen to it. iTunes does not allow you to save this music to your hard drive. MyTunes lifts this restriction by allowing you to save music from other computers to your hard drive.

    Then he says, down at the bottom, something of a "disclaimer" which, although I am not a legal specialist, does not sound like it has any legitimacy:

    If you plan on stealing music, do not download this software. If you plan on infringing upon copyrights, do not download this software. Only download this software if you plan on acting responsibly. Warranty: There is absolutely no warranty of any kind whatsoever with this software. The software is provided to you "AS-IS", and all risks and losses associated with its use are assumed by you. In no event shall the author of this software, Bill Zeller, be held accountable for any damages or losses that may occur from use or misuse of the software. Use at your own risk. And remember, copyright infringement is illegal. If you have any question whether what you're doing constitutes an infringement, visit the RIAA's great anti-piracy website.

    He also links to Apple's iTunes website, which has to have some sort of legal implications, seeing as this is a program which can (potentially) be used in malignant ways.

    It'll be interesting to see if Apple tries to do an "over-the-internet auto update" like Microsoft does with its patches, for this, or if they try to guise a fix for this as a "feature upgrade". If they do, they better have some new features. This is exactly what iTunes update to 4.0.1 did for Mac users, when it was discovered people could share music with other exact IP addresses.
    • "However, in addition to purchasing music, one can listen to any of the music shared by others on a network. So, for example, if another person on your network has iTunes and decides to share their music, you can listen to it. iTunes does not allow you to save this music to your hard drive."

      In fact iTunes sharing is supposed to be "Personal use only", not shared with other people even on the same subnet. At least thats what it says when you enable sharing on iTunes for Windows. Thats why you can also passw
  • I have three seperate programs that do this already, and never use them. If i see that one of my co-workers is sharing a song i want, i wander over to their desk, or send an e-mail:

    "hey, can you throw ________ onto the server, i want that for my iPod."

    and there you go, i have the original rip/dl

    no news here, continue as you were.

    • I like the combination of this particular post with your sig:

      "hey, can you throw ________ onto the server, i want that for my iPod."

      No thanks I gave up ________ for lent.

      I'll have to remember that the next time someone asks me to throw something onto the server.

      --
  • what about downloading from your friends of friends?? [slashdot.org]
  • I'll tell you about defeated technology, we used to put Mac OS 7.5 up against Windows 3 and it was hard. Hard! Man! Now we're swinging swords for iTunes and hackers? F--- hackers, I'm talking about rip-offs of 8-track tapes on my casset tape player. Damn you, fools! I've got a cassette tape ripped from an 8-track of Styx in my Cabriolette at this very moment ... and it's CRANKED! Ya'all don't know piracy! Ya don't!!!! Get down with the brother who once played Zork for 45 straight hours.... Can't

  • I like it (Score:2, Informative)

    by PortWineBoy ( 587071 )
    I've been using it this week and like it quite a bit. My company has about 8 iTunes users on my local subnet and I have been "borrowing" all week long. It isn't exactly feature rich and you must start playing a song to make it available for download. Otherwise, it's nifty!
  • As far as I know you can already share a folder (read only) and allow anyone on a network to copy the music and you can already stream music through iTunes to anyone on a network. The only question would be if is these things are sufficiently harder on a Windows machine to require a special program?

  • You could do this before, even on windows or linux (Score:5, Informative)

    by RalphBNumbers ( 655475 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @10:12PM (#7470708)
    In addition to iTunesDL, mentioned in the article for mac, there's iSlurp [oatbit.com] which does basically the same thing in platform independent java. and has been out for six months.

    But now we have a bunch of hype and publicity.
    So the Record companies are probably going to give apple shit and force more limitations down our throats, just like when Apple had to limit iTunes to sharing on the local network only.

    Good job people.

  • 64 kbps (Score:3, Informative)

    by fupeg ( 653970 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @10:28PM (#7470760)
    All this thing does is copy the stream that is coming across Rendezvous. That stream is limited at 64 kbps. Even if you were streaming non-protected AAC files, this is a pretty power quality copy, similar to copying a CD to a tape.
    • Ummm, I might be missing something but I really doubt it. I think you are mixing up the bandwidth with the bitrate of the file. They have very little to do with each other.

      Looking at the MyTunes site [drunkenaardvark.com] confirms my suspicions:

      The CNET story on MyTunes described it as a "stream capturer". This is wrong. MyTunes allows you to obtain the exact original file, unlike "stream capturers", which record music that's streaming and save the recorded audio to disk.

    • I think you're incorrect. iTunes is not transcoding my VBR mp3 files down to 64k in real time just to stream them to a client over the LAN. If it was doing this, not only would I notice that the sound quality would suck, but the CPU usage on my main PC would be through the roof. I'm not even sure if my P4 2.6 ghz. could transcode in realtime to more than 1 or 2 clients.
      • "iTunes is not transcoding my VBR mp3 files down to 64k in real time just to stream them"

        This is correct. The "streamed" files are identical to the files on disk, in their original encoding, with metadata and DRM intact. This is more like "file downloading" without the files being saved to disk than it is like traditional "streaming".
    • That is wrong on two points:
      1. iTunes doesn't limit the bitrate of the shared music in any way
      2. MyTunes copies the whole file, it doesn't capture streams. The file that comes out of MyTunes is identical to the original in every way.

  • The loser: Me (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Therlin ( 126989 ) on Thursday November 13, 2003 @10:31PM (#7470772)
    Great. Pretty soon Apple will disable this option and I will not be able to use iTunes simple zero-conf mp3 sharing. I loved opening my iTunes from another computer and listen to my songs. The loser: Me.

    In the meanwhile all the kiddies will keep using Kazaa to get their songs.
  • Should it not be called HisOrHerTunes instead of MyTunes? After all, if downloaded from someone else, they aren't mine as in MyTunes. Even better, the software could probably be called, WeDon'tKnowWhoLegallyObtainTheseFirstTunes.

    Later,
    -Slashdot Junky
  • An official bittorrent file of MyTunes can be downloaded here:

    http://www.drunkenaardvark.com/MyTunes.exe.torrent [drunkenaardvark.com]
  • The program allows mp3 STREAMING over itunes on windows, not mp3 DOWNLOADING

    This is as bad as television shows where they often confuse uploading with downloading. To TV, everything that involves information transfer and a computer = downloading.

    Morons.

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