iTunes Internet P2P music sharing: now you see it, now you don't

iTunes Internet P2P music sharing: now you see it, now you don't

5/19/2003 12:51:17 AM, by Hannibal

After the nifty Rendezvous-based P2P streaming features of iTunes 4 were announced, it was only a matter of time before someone hacked the protocol and figured out away to let users on different subnets share files with each other across the Internet. And after this breakthrough, it was only a little while longer before others figured out how to turn iTunes streaming into outright file downloading. And after this last milestone was reached, it took even less time for the chilling effects of the RIAA's scorched earth lawsuit strategy to kick in and prod those hosting Internet-based iTunes P2P sites, where iTunes 4 users could browse each others' libraries and listen to music from them, to shut down until further notice. Such was the short, happy life of Spy Mac Music and iTunesdb.com.

Sites such as Spymac.com, ShareITunes.com and Itunesdb.com began offering music streaming services that allow registered users to browse and search the collections of other ITunes users, then listen to those songs streamed over the Internet. The sites relied on the work of programmers who had deciphered a protocol that ITunes uses to stream music, according to David Benesch, a Williamsville, New York software developer.

Benesch cracked the protocol, named DAAP, as a "weekend project." He said he figured out how to pull information out of a command in the protocol that is used to transmit the name of the artist and song. Benesch provided his code to Spymac.com after the Apple enthusiast site expressed an interest in using it as the basis for an online ITunes stream sharing service, he said. Benesch's code enabled ITunes users to display their song catalogs online through Spymac.com's music site. But other developers went further, figuring out how to capture the actual music stream from ITunes, Benesch said.

Within days of the new Web-based ITunes databases appearing, tools with names like "ILeech" appeared that enabled users not just to listen to songs streamed from another ITunes user's music database, but to copy them. The tools turned the new services into the foundation for an online file swapping service, Benesch said.

First came the hacker, and then the crackers--but before the lawyers could step in it was all over.

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iTunes 4 Tip - Sharing iTunes Libraries Over IP; It's Not Just For Rendezvous

iTunes 4 Tip - Sharing iTunes Libraries Over IP; It's Not Just For Rendezvous

by Staff, 10:00 AM EDT, April 29th, 2003

Yesterday, Apple released an update to it's iTunes music software which introduced a new feature: the sharing of your music library and playlists. While this usually is done via Rendezvous over a local network, it can also be done over IP from anywhere in the world. How can you do this? We've constructed a little tutorial to help you get your music shared easily over IP via iTunes 4.

Note: There are several things that you need to keep in mind when using this feature. First of all, please realize that sharing this music requires a great deal of bandwidth (as it is essentially streamed to the listener) and thus could drop in and out depending on connection speed and network congestion. Secondly, remember that this feature is for personal use only. This should be easy to remember, because iTunes reminds you when you first enable sharing.

In order to setup your copy of iTunes to share libraries and playlists, you must open the iTunes preferences and navigate to the "Sharing" tab. Select the check box that says "Share my music" and then select whether you want to share all music or just specific playlists. You can then enter the name of your share (what people logging into your library will see it as) and whether or not it requires a password to be accessed. When you have completed this, close the preferences window.

If you do not have a firewall turned on, you are done with the setup. If you do have a firewall enabled, you need to open up a particular port for individuals to access your library through. With Mac OS X's built in firewall, simply go to the "Sharing" portion of the system preferences and navigate to the "Firewall" tab. Click on the "New..." button to add an additional port to the list. In the "Port Name" drop-down box, pull down to other and enter something like "iTunes". For the port number, enter "3689". This will now allow people to connect to your machine and access your library.

To access an iTunes library shared over IP, simply pull down from the "Advanced" menu in iTunes and select "Connect to Shared Music...". In the resulting dialog enter "daap://" followed by the IP address you are trying to connect to and then completed with a ":3689" (all without quotes). Here's are some examples: daap://192.168.1.1:3689 or daap://www.yourmachine.com:3689. If the machine you are trying to access is available via Rendezvous, you will not need to perform this step.

Once connected, you will see a blue library icon and the name of the share you are connected to appear in the playlist/library column of iTunes. You can now browse the library and playlists like you would your own library. To play a song, simply double-click on it's name in the list as you normally would do. Music purchased via the iTunes Music Store will prompt you to enter the password for the Apple ID corresponding to that purchase in order to play the file. This will link that particular copy of iTunes as one of the three Macs for music downloaded via that ID. Files that did not originate from the iTunes Music Store will not prompt for a password.

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Hackers: iTunes can be shared over Net

Published: May 12, 2003, 4:57 PM PDT

By John Borland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Apple Computer's iTunes software has apparently opened up a new way for Macintosh owners to share music collections across the Internet.

The new music jukebox software, released two weeks ago as part of a set of high-profile Apple music announcements, contains features that allow Mac users to stream music to each other over a network. The songs are not downloaded permanently but do allow computer users to listen to any song on another network-connected Macintosh's hard drive.

Several groups of online programmers say they have figured out ways to extend this feature from a local area network to the Net. A few Web sites and software applications are claiming to allow people to search other Net-connected Macintosh computers' hard drives in order to listen to songs online.

"The feature is built into iTunes...but we had to dissect it ourselves," said Kevin April, Webmaster for Spymac.com, which launched its own music-sharing hub last week. "Integrating it into a Web service was a big task."

The rise of the new services threatens to put Apple's software squarely in the center of a controversy that the company had hoped to avoid with the release of its new iTunes online music store. That site, which offers easy access to a huge music catalog of 99-cent songs, won strong kudos from record labels as a big step forward in the authorized distribution of music online.

It's not wholly clear whether sharing music with a few, even anonymous people online veers completely away from that vision. The sharing feature is only as strong as a given Mac user's bandwidth, which for most home consumers can support just a few individuals, April said.

Nevertheless, the new services say that they offer a way to search and stream songs on demand, which typically requires a specific kind of license from the copyright holders. Long and bitter battles over the cost of those licenses, even for hobbyist Webcasters, have been fought in front of Congress and federal copyright regulators.

Apple itself did not release documentation on the over-the-Net sharing features and does not officially support the efforts.

iTunes "is not meant to be used in any other way than for personal use," said an Apple representative. The company said it will be monitoring the trend, but had no further comment.

Along with the Spymac Web site, applications such as ServerStore and iTunes Tracker say they are providing search tools for people sharing their music online.

An earlier project called iCommune advertises the ability to download other Mac users' songs, much like more traditional peer-to-peer services. That project was shut down once after protests from Apple, but has been relaunched without using proprietary Apple technology.

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iCommune	Documentation	Download	401(ok)	Bugs and Feedback	History

iCommune iCommune is a standalone open source application for Mac OS X that extends Apple's iTunes to share your music over a network. You can share the music in your iTunes library and access other iCommune music collections. iCommune music collections appear as playlists in your iTunes window. You can browse through them, and choose to stream or download the music they contain. The new version of iCommune is finally available for download. It's definitely an alpha version, but it seems to work pretty well for me. Enjoy!

Legal	iCommune is hosted on sourceforge.net	Credits

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