Hacker's Sidestep Lets Ipod Play Tracks Not Bought From Itunes

Apple may be forced to look again at security for the iPod after a renowned hacker claimed to have found a way of bypassing the copy protection on its market-leading music player.

Jon Lech Johansen, a Norwegian hacker living in California, has managed to sidestep Apple's Fairplay management system and trick iPods into thinking they are playing tracks bought from the company's online iTunes store.

Mr Johansen's breakthrough could potentially unlock the popular music player - which has sold more than 68m units around the world since it was launched five years ago - and make it compatible with tracks sold by other online retailers. The iPod is only able to play music taken from CDs or bought directly from iTunes.

Mr Johansen says he is working with an unnamed client to create a business around licensing his system to web shops and download stores. Monique Farantzos, managing director of Mr Johansen's company Double Twist Ventures, which is based in California, said: "There's a certain amount of trouble that Apple can give us, but not enough to stop this. We believe we're on good legal ground, and our attorneys have given us the green light." Apple refused to comment.

In the late 1990s, 15-year old Mr Johansen gained notoriety for breaking the copy protection software used to encrypt DVDs, bringing down the ire of the technology industry on him and earning him the monicker of "DVD Jon". After a lengthy attempt by the film industry to prosecute him for computer hacking, he was acquitted in 2003.

But this is not the first time he has turned his talents to unlocking Apple's restrictive locking mechanism. In 2003, just months after Apple started selling encrypted music from iTunes, Mr Johansen came up with a basic attempt to break it. Subsequent attempts have improved the system, but the 22-year-old now says he has created a system which is entirely legal because it does not break any of the software built into the iPod.

In the past, others have come up with ways around Apple's system, which the computer company managed to nullify by making alterations to the Fairplay system.