Apple's getting flack from the Electronic Frontier Foundation due to its heavy-handed response to a group attempting to untie iPods from the iTunes software. Apple sent a DMCA take-down notice to the Wiki-based site Bluwiki regarding a discussion group known as "iPodhash". The group is trying to reverse engineer the encrypted hash used to secure an iPod's media database. The project has nothing to do with removing Apple's FairPlay DRM from purchased iTunes tracks. The encryption being worked on is that which is generated by iTunes when it updates the database of songs when transferring tracks to an iPod. This hurdle prevents you from using third party applications to manage your songs, forcing everyone to use iTunes. Since there's no iTunes for Linux, users of that operating system can't transfer songs to iPods.

The DMCA is supposed to protect reverse engineering and circumventing encryption schemes when done for the purpose of interoperability with other platforms than the native. As the non-for-profit hacking group hasn't the means to defend itself against a DMCA order, the EFF has stepped up to defend the group's rights. A cursory review of the issues at hand confirms EFF's interpretation of the law: "Apple doesn't have a DMCA leg to stand on". There's no word yet on Apple's response.

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