Edible Apple

DVD Jon, a.k.a Jon Lech Johansen, is essentially a DRM slayer.  If he had his own 80’s sitcom, the intro might go something like this – “If you have a file, and it has DRM, and no one else can help you, then maybe you can hire.. DVD Jon.”  And now cue The A-Team music.

But even though all the songs on iTunes are now DRM-Free, Apple’s media player still only supports iPod hardware, a fact which begat an anti-trust lawsuit a few years back.  Now, as part of that case, DVD Jon has been issued a subpoena seeking to obtain any documents he once received from Apple which pertain to his previous efforts to strip iTunes songs of their DRM – a few years ago, Johansen made headlines when he released software which enabled users to remove DRM from songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store.

The pertinent document requests include the following:

1. All communications with Apple concerning your efforts to make iPod inter-operable with digital audio and/or video recordings purchased from online stores other than the iTunes Store and/or your efforts to make digital audio and/or video recordings purchased from iTunes Store interoperable with portable digital media players other than iPod, including, but not limited to, you efforts to circumvent and/or reverse engineer FairPlay.

2. All communications with Apple concerning the licensing of FairPlay.

and

3. All documents and communications concerning Apple’s attempts to prevent your efforts to circumvent or reverse engineer FairPlay.

The subpoena can be found in its entirety over here.