[Ed] The good and bad of PyMusique's return


In the ongoing battle royale between Jon Johansen, aka "DVD Jon," and Apple, the latter has taken it on the chin--PyMusique is back. The salt in the wound, so to speak, is that the application is available on Linux and 'doze, but not Mac.

PyMusique's creators, including the enterprising Cody Brocious, have stated that their intent is to "embrace and extend" by bringing the iTunes Music Store to Linux and other OS'. This argument might stand up were it not for these statements from the young Mr Brocious:

Our intent was not to circument copy protection, and if Apple did DRM on the server, we would leave it in place! But applying DRM in an open-source project is not worth the time it would take to code it.

"Time" is what one gets when the required effort is not given and intentions, as the old saying goes, are what paves the road to hell.

Although I believe in neither hell nor anyone's justifications for encrypting anything with DRM--ie the root of this pissing match--if you want to play with Apple and iTMS, then DRM it is. The market will sort out Apple, Microsoft, Real et al on the finer ethical points of DRM.

Thusly...

With DRM intact, PyMusique would be a natural extension of iTMS compatibility to a wider audience and Apple wouldn't have a moral leg to stand on. As is, however, the publication and distribution of the application could possibly be punishable offense, and rightly so.

What's your take?