Apple tempts DVD Jon

And lo there was a great wailing and gnashing of teeth in Apple headquarters. Is this called the big apple maybe? Less than 24 hours after the firm had fixed a ‘security hole’ that let people, quite reasonably, play the music they had paid for on any devices they want – not just iPods - the software wizards struck again.

There’s an important lesson here; one that the industry has problems learning. There is no such thing as a foolproof security system. A thousand engineering wage slaves will never be able to outperform tens of thousands of amateurs – people who break such systems for the sheer joy of it.

Expect this story to run and run, with Apple’s next move neatly countered by improved software. This is a race Apple can’t win. Instead it should open its proprietary systems and let music be free.