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These two applications have recently received a lot of attention due to their interactions with iTunes and the iTunes Music Store. Unfortunately, due to some very poor reporting across the internet, there are significant misconceptions about how these programs actually work. In fact, one article claims that you could now download songs for free from the iTunes Music Store. (This is not true.)

You will see that MyTunes and QTFairUse have nothing to do with each other, and serve different purposes altogether.

File Formats

MP3 - a song file that is compressed using MP3 compression

M4A ("AAC") - a song file that is compressed using AAC compression

M4P ("Protected AAC")- a song file that is compressed using AAC compression AND encrypted using your iTunes Music Store ID.

MyTunes

Before talking about MyTunes, let me point out a unique capability provided in Apple's iTunes software. iTunes allows users to "stream" music from your computer to other computers on your local network. This means individuals in the same house or dormitory can listen to songs from the iTunes libraries of other individuals in the same network.

When you double click on that song, iTunes sends the audio files (M4A or MP3) to your computer, and your computer plays them locally.

If a song you are trying to play is a "Protected AAC" (M4P) file... you still are still required to provide the correct username/password to play the song.

What MyTunes does is lets you SAVE TO DISK the songs that are streaming to your computer. So, M4A and MP3 files can be saved to your harddrive so you don't have to rely on the other person's computer to be available. Remember, M4P (Protected AAC) files are saved exactly as they are streamed... which means they are still encrypted and still need a valid username/password to play them.

MyTunes has nothing to do with circumventing iTunes' Digital Rights Mangement system.

QTFairUse

QTFairUse is a completely different tool, specifically aimed at converting M4P (Protected AAC) files to M4A (AAC) files. This would effectively remove the Digital Rights Management from an iTunes song.

When Quicktime plays an M4A (AAC) song, it does the following:

M4A -> Loads into Memory -> Processes the AAC data -> Audio

When Quicktime plays a M4P (Protected AAC) song, it does the following (assuming you are able to provide it the valid username/password for the song):

M4P -> Loads in Memory -> Decrypts the M4P into AAC -> Processes the AAC data -> Audio

What QTFairUse does (also assuming you are able to provide it the valid username/password for the song):

M4P -> Loads in Memory -> Decrypts the M4P into AAC -> Processes the AAC data -> Audio
                                                    |
                                                     -> Saves M4A (AAC) data to disk

This effectively removes the Digital Rights Management from a file, so that the resultant AAC file can be played without having to provide a username/password.

What about Audio Hijack?

Audio Hijack and similar tools do the following

M4P -> Loads in Memory -> Decrypts the M4P into AAC -> Processes the AAC data -> Audio -> Saves to Disk (RAW Audio)

It saves the Raw Audio which has been uncompressed from AAC into RAW audio (AIFF). This audio can then be re-compressed to AAC (or mp3 etc...)... but each time audio is compressed with these lossy algorithms, howeverm some quality is lost -- making QTFairUse a "better" tool.

So What?

Exactly... so what?

QTFairUse isn't any quicker than burning your songs to disk and re-ripping them. In fact, the burning/ripping method is much faster. It does give the advantage that there is no loss... but the reason that appears to be cited by the QTFairUse author is to allow him to play his purchased M4P songs on Linux. Apple doesn't presently provide any means of playing Protected AAC files in Linux.

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