Requiem faced an uphill battle, however, as Apple was able to change the way that users’ authorization keys were stored and accessed with each iTunes update. The result was a DRM-free file that was identical in quality to the original, and the process took only a few minutes to perform. This method did indeed work, and produced an output that was likely acceptable for most users, but it fell short of the lossless quality sought by many users, and took quite a bit of time to convert each file.īy contrast, Requiem accessed a user’s unique iTunes authorization keys and actually removed the DRM from the original file itself, similar to the process of decrypting an encrypted file. This was key because many of the other apps in this category simply performed a screen capture of the video playing in iTunes and then re-encoded the output into a new, DRM-free file. Requiem was unique because it was one of the few utilities that promised to remove iTunes DRM losslessly, that is, without any loss of quality from the original source file. One such utility that gained quite a bit of popularity and notoriety was called Requiem. Bypassing DRM, especially for commercial purposes, is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States, so these utilities were often published anonymously and hosted on foreign servers. If you try to play these files via any other device or application, such as your Xbox One console or Plex Media Server, you’ll be greeted only with a blank screen or a “Cannot Play File” error.Ī few years ago, several utilities that claimed they could defeat Apple’s DRM popped up online. In the case of videos purchased from the iTunes Store, DRM limits playback to the iTunes app in OS X and Windows, Apple iDevices, and the Apple TV. That type of ethical and consumer rights analysis is crucial, but as a topic that also has technical and legal angles, I was intrigued and wanted to evaluate the veracity of NoteBurner’s claims.įor those unfamiliar with the topic, DRM is code added to digital files that restricts when and how those files can be played. Dave has just published a great article on why software like NoteBurner exists, and how it can even help “honest” users stay honest and legal when acquiring digital content.

The Mac Observer’s Dave Hamilton recently told me about NoteBurner, an app for both Windows and OS X that claims to losslessly remove the digital rights management (DRM) protections from movies and TV shows purchased from the iTunes Store. The iTunes DRM Removal Saga: NoteBurner and a Look Back at Requiem

Best itunes video drm removal software