Because of all the earnings out there, the story regarding another iPod and iTunes hack has been in the backseat. There is an interesting story out on Apple Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) regarding a hack on the iTunes and iPod restrictions, although this is sort of a continuation and follow-on article to what Doug McIntyre already wrote this week. It seems that now more is known and the ramifications are clearer.

This is regarding notorious source code breaker Jon Lech Johansen, or "DVD Jon," who previously broke the code for encrypting DVD and other downloads. Now this is on FairPlay.

So while iPod and iTunes are exclusive, this cracked code allows users to bypass the inter-dependability and turn it into interoperability. Johansen reverse engineered the code. Apple may not like this one red bit, and you can bet their attorneys are going to block this all they can. But the issue here is that Apple touted itself for years as the alternative system, yet now the iPod/iTunes dominance has taken what used to be the Win-Tel (Microsoft-Windows and Intel-Pentium) alliance to a new modern day extreme.

Yes, this gets into a controversial area. Everyone loves their MP3 players (if that term isn't old-school already), and iPod users take this to the extent that it is THE must-have fashion accessory.