Playfair Relocates to India

Lord Grey writes "Imagine my surprise to see playfair 0.5.0 appear on Freshmeat's project list. Remember, the project was pulled after Apple filed a Cease-and-Desist order just a few days ago. playfair's new web site talks a bit about the move, as well as sporting the latest release of the controversial utility."

Dupe post, not story

[Gothmolly]

This was the 2nd reader post from the original story of PlayFair being pulled. Why is this news?

News ?

[Krunch]

http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=103485&c id=8817454 [slashdot.org]

Re:For Once I don't Agree

[Anonymous Coward]

> It's like picking a friends pocket.

No, in fact it's nothing like picking a friends pocket. I'd use Playfair - like i use Soulseek, Kazaa etc - but i'd never *steal* from anyone, where stealing is defined as `taking something from someone such that they cannot use what they've paid for until I give it back`, not `making an identical copy of something`, which can more accurately be labelled `copying`.

If you think copying and stealing are the same then no doubt you call a photocopier a `soul stealer` or something, right?

Re:No good can come of this

[nuffle]

If you want to assume the moral high ground--"I don't believe the majority of the people who use my program will use it so that they can share their files on Kazaa."--then you'd damn well better stick to it, instead of cutting and running for the sewer at the first sign of trouble.

What they did was fine.

Not everyone has the desire to be a martyr for the cause. Whoever developed this is clearly worried about being found guilty of a crime or fighting an expensive legal battle. They have an easy, legal avenue that allows them to do what they want without fear of renumeration. What's so dumb about that?

If you're so critical, perhaps you can be the one to take the "moral high ground" and stage some civil disobedience by hosting this stuff in the US.

Re:For Once I don't Agree

[sh00z]

How about playing the files on non apple hardware such as a portable mp3 player?

You would have to transcode the file to mp3, a function that iTunes already lets you do. No need to circumvent the DRM.

Or even to burn it to cd and play it in your car?

Uh, have you even looked at iTunes? That circle in the top-right corner that says "Burn to CD?"

What if you were searching for hidden messages and wanted to play it backwards?

Open it it QuickTime, and hold down the left-arrow button.

Or play it on your network-enabled-but-not-approved-by-apple-home-ste reo.

There are several options that don't involve circumventing the DRM. Besides the abovementioned burn-to CD option, you could try this [kentidwell.com] (wireless), or this [xitel.com] (wired).

Now, if you had said that you want to play your iTunes Music Store purchases on your Linux box, you'd actually have an argument.

Re:doubt that will last

[indigeek]

I live in India and AFAIK apple has zero investment here (no call centers, never seen a Apple retailer here). Near zero percentage of Indians use Macs too.
Moreover, the sarovar website is hosted by Asianet, which is a leftleaning TV channel in a state with a history of communist governments (BTW communist is not a bad word here). So not only are they cool with the idea of community ownership of information they are also not to be messed with easily since they can very well publicise it.
Not saying that India has never censored information (pakistani news/TV is the most commonly banned), but its not very common either.

Copying is never stealing.

[Anonymous Coward]

"will continue to use "stealing music" in ordinary conversation and writing"

Then you will likely be the one to use "murder" to describe a crime of rape, right?

"If you commit copyright violation by taking another person's copyrighted music, copying it without authorization, and redistributing it, you are taking some sales away from them"

Maybe, maybe not. Next...

" In the case of music copying it is "copyright violation." They are both forms of "stealing.""

No, it does not meet the definition of stealing at all.

"Depriving a work's rightful owner of income generated by that work by giving away copies of that work without permission. Sure sounds like stealing to me, and to most honest people."

Few honest people actually abuse the definitions of words like this. To abuse word meanings like this is a sort of lie, and if you lie like this you are not honest.

"How is this morally different from letting your friends in the back door of a club that has a cover charge? "

I never said it was moral. I was just saying it is not theft, since it does not meet the definition. Whatever those back-door sneaks in your example are, they are not thieves.

Re:Sarovar

[swapsn]

Sarovar means lake(i think). Is there a hidden meaning in this?

Yeah, sarovar is lake in Hindi. Its generally used only in written language though.
In this case, the hidden meaning may be something like "pool of projects" or somesuch.

Re:For Once I don't Agree

[DougMackensie]

You would have to transcode the file to mp3, a function that iTunes already lets you do. No need to circumvent the DRM.

erm, no you cannot transcode a fairplay aac file to a mp3 file. You can burn it to a cd, and then rip it, but a direct transcode is not possible.

Asianet, channel and Asianet, ISP are different

[raj2569]

Though they share common name, they are 2 different companies. They started as one, but now split and managed by 2 different groups.

raj

Re:Are the AAC files watermarked in any way ?

[Anonymous Coward]

It only does the unencryption. If the watermark is held within that crypt, then this will get rid of that too. If it is separate, then it will remain.

Re:For Once I don't Agree

[Reverberant]

erm, no you cannot transcode a fairplay aac file to a mp3 file. You can burn it to a cd, and then rip it, but a direct transcode is not possible.

You can't transcode a Fairplay AAC file to mp3 directly in iTunes, but if you know how to access the QuickTime API using Applescript, RealBasic or Apple's tools, you can transcode the files easily.

Also, you may be able to transoce Fairplay files using digital audio editing software that uses QuickTime.