Microsoft’s promise of iPod compatibility with the Xbox 360 is showing a little thin in practice. As a media extender to a Windows XP Media Center the 360 is a step toward the digital entertainment hub of one’s household. The setback to iPod compatibility is Apple’s proprietary DRM, FairPlay. Xbox 360 isn't compatible with it so, won’t play songs downloaded from iTunes. It really doesn’t matter that you have digital nirvana in your living room with a WinMC machine serving up your 360 Extender; all it takes is a .99 iTunes file to send your fancy media machines packing!
That is unless you hack your iTunes files and strip it of Apple’s pesky FairPlay DRM. Unless you remove the DRM from your iTunes downloaded songs not only will they not play over your 360 but you’ll have a slew of other restrictions imposed by THE MAN! Xbox 360’s so called iPod compatibility is simply the ability to play media from a USB connected device. It sounds better to say “iPod compatible” than to say “USB media compatible”.
Microsoft may be the victim of Apple’s DRM but they’re old hands at the proprietary DRM game themselves. PlaysForSure is Microsoft’s DRM 10, used by many online music services that compete with Apples iTunes. Music services like Napster and Yahoo Music compete with the Apple’s juggernaut by simply offering a better deal to customers. The subscriber business paradigm gives you access to a million song library for a monthly fee. In comparison, a million songs from iTunes would cost you a million dollars. The music services use Microsoft’s DRM which means they’ll only playback on your PC using a PlaysForSure player like Windows Media Player. Great if you have a Media Extender (like Xbox 360) you can fill your home theater system with music. What if you want to take your tunes on the road? Then you must have a PlaysForSure compatible MP3 player such as iRiver, Archos or other leading digital media players that have nothing to do with Apple or Sony.
Microsoft’s DRM is not compatible with Sony’s new line of Walkman or its Walkman branded phones the W800i and W600i. So, war between Sony, Microsoft and Apple prevent compatibility with each others hardware and media through each other’s DRMs forcing consumers take sides in an unholy alliance. By taking a side you submit to having your property held hostage by one of these corporations. Sony’s own DRM is particularly evil, but that’s another story.
Don’t just take it laying down! You can fight back by making your media DRM free. It’s rumored that two cracks exist for Microsoft’s DRM 10 AKA; PlaysForSure. They’re called DrmDbg.exe and drm2wmv.exe. Maybe a bit torrent will find them but you’re unlikely to find it through Google searches, Microsoft keeps this one tightly under wraps. Because Microsoft updates their software so often it might be obsolete before you even obtain it. But hacks and cracks represent a war of escalation so sooner or later another PlaysForSure crack will be developed.
Apple’s DRM on the other hand is easy. Rumor has it you can strip FairPlay using Apples own software, simply convert your .99 cent iTunes songs to CD and then back to MP3 format. There are utilities like Hymn (search Google for your Hymn) specifically designed to strip FairPlay.
The need for DRM is a controversial one at best. Part of what makes digital consumer goods so valuable is that they can be distributed so easily. It’s up to us whether we’re using this power to distribute DVD ISO files or encoded music to playback devices through our household networks or if we’re distributing and obtaining it through the internet without paying for it. But one aspect of DRM that no consumer should have to put up with is the incompatibility with each other’s hardware. It’s one thing to use a DRM to prevent piracy so that the producers and artists get paid. But it’s abusive to use DRM to promote your brand whether your Apple, Microsoft or Sony.