iTunes authorization

[wsdr]

Does anyone know where the authorization info is stored on the HD?

I had to do an archive-install of OS X and I blew out one of my 3 authoriziations. I feel like such an idiot. It happened like this:

I have had an old 7600 with G3 upgrade running OS X 10.2.6 and an 80-gig HD that I set up as our family jukebox using iTunes. I just aquired a beige G3 with a G4 upgrade card in it to replace the 7600. Not really thinking, I just moved the HD to the new Mac, and proceeded to do an Archive install to bring it up and running (XPostFacto was required for the 7600, but not for the G3, so a reinstall was necessary).

Well, 3 seconds after I clicked the final "ok" on the install, I realized that I had not de-Authorized the old computer first. I thought, no problem, surely the archive install will preserve the original authorization on the hard drive, right? No way.

My heart sank when I first opened iTunes and got the License Agreement. It sank further when I had to re-Authorize it to play some of my purchased music.

So now I'm down to 2 computers on which I can play my already purchased music-- my laptop and my jukebox. While it's not the end of the world, what's going to happen when the next update or upgrade kills my last remaining authorizations?

I figure that the old authorization must be somewhere in the archived System-- does anyone have any idea where I might find it and move it back? Nothing got erased during the install-- just moved.

wsdr

[yellow]

Sorry to hear! I was under the impression that there was some sort of 'counter' in the AAC encoding that interacted with iTunes. I doubt that the info is stored in a file somewhere (begging for a hacking).

[petey]

Apple is not advertising the system as working this way. The ID is supposed to be tied to the machine, not the installed system.

I can't offer specifics, but perhaps you have made some type of user error. Perhaps you haven't really lost an authorization, or perhaps you followed the wrong steps in re-setting up iTunes and unnecessarily lost an authorization.

If either is the case, it's a failure of the Apple Fairplay interface.

[mpdtwo]

If you reinstall, you must first de-authorize your system first. I don't know if there is a way to recover what you are looking for, but I doubt you can; I think you are stuck.

[wsdr]

I have been giving this some thought. The authorization _must_ be locally stored. Otherwise, how could you play songs when you aren't online? So I tried a simple test-- played some music in my library when I was no longer connected to the internet. Worked just fine.

But it also dawned on me that the key must be related to the S/N of the computer-- I think that every mac capable of running OS X can report it's serial number to the OS. The way I see it, it wasn't the archive install that killed me, it was moving the HD to a new CPU.

I'm moving it back and I'll report what I find. Oh, and this time I'm de-authorizing it before moving it!

[yellow]

It is stored locally.. Like I said before, inside the AAC encoded song . To clarify what I said earlier was that I seriously don't think that info is stored in a separate file from the song. When you move a song to a new machine, you're only moving the encoded song and it's going to ask you to authorize it to play on that machine. Well anyway, thoughts on IDing. Not ever computer can resolve it's own serial number, so it's entirely possible that it associates itself with the EHA (which is most certainly can resolve). Even if you put a new ethernet connector in the machine, the built-in is always there. Of course, it's also VERY possible that it's some ID info it takes from the motherboard. Even then, what happens if your motherboard gets replaced? [ponder]

I (think &) hope moving the drive back to the original machine works.

[wsdr]

Yellow, I'm sitting here waiting for the HD to boot back up on the old machine, so hopefully I'll fix this soon. In the meantime, if the authorization is stored in the song, then does each song get updated after you move it? I doubt that.

More to the point, I keep all of my music on one shared volume that my two computers can both access and play-- so the authorization for the particular iTunes must be separate from the song, otherwise, the songs would continuously be updated, right? Or the last one that authorized to a song would be the only one that plays it-- make sense?

More later....

[petey]

AFAIK...

there is a key in the aac file, which matches against some type of public key stored locally, which should be reaquirable without losing an authorization. this public key also matches against something hardware in the machine

you only have to be connected to the interernet to authorize/deauthorize, or to reaquire the public key.

i missed in your original post that you had swapped out the hard drive. the speculation has been that the hardware key was a machine's ethernet address or serial number, but perhaps the hardware identifier is tied to the boot hard drive instead, which would explain your problem.

a normal HD wipe / reinstall, without physically swapping out the HD should not result in a lost authorization.

my hunch is still some type of user error here, as outlined in my previous post, but it certainly is possible that it was the HD swap instead.

[wsdr]

Petey,

I took the HD from one CPU to another-- not the other way around. So all the data is intact on the drive, just moved around from the Archive Install. That's why I'm trying to track down where that data was stored. I'm move the HD back to its original Mac in hopes that this will help in the search. It's no mean task, though, since the original Mac is a 7600 with G3 card-- I had to use XPostFacto to do the install, so I'm having to do yet another Archive install to get back. At least this time I deauthorized first, but it's slow as molasses reinstalling X on this 7600.

wsdr

[mervTormel]

i don't pretend to understand who/what/when these files:

$ ll /.DRM_Home 
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin         356 Nov  9  2002 /.DRM_Home*

$ bincat /.DRM_Home
00 00 00 00 01 64 00 02 00 01 07 61 6e 63 68 6f    | .....d.....ancho
76 79 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    | vy..............
00 00 00 00 00 00 b9 b7 26 5d 48 2b 00 00 00 00    | ........&]H+....
1f 30 09 50 72 69 76 69 6c 65 67 65 00 00 00 00    | .0.Privilege....
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    | ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    | ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    | ................
00 00 00 03 9b f5 b9 e9 85 ac 00 00 00 00 00 00    | ................
00 00 ff ff ff ff 00 00 01 20 00 00 00 00 00 00    | ......... ......
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 13 41 70 70 6c 69 63    | ..........Applic
61 74 69 6f 6e 20 53 75 70 70 6f 72 74 00 00 10    | ation Support...
00 08 00 00 b9 b7 88 cd 00 00 00 11 00 08 00 00    | ................
b9 e9 f6 2c 00 00 00 01 00 08 00 00 1f 30 00 00    | ...,.........0..
07 99 00 02 00 2d 61 6e 63 68 6f 76 79 3a 4c 69    | .....-anchovy:Li
62 72 61 72 79 3a 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 69 6f    | brary:Applicatio
6e 20 53 75 70 70 6f 72 74 3a 50 72 69 76 69 6c    | n Support:Privil
65 67 65 00 00 0e 00 14 00 09 00 50 00 72 00 69    | ege........P.r.i
00 76 00 69 00 6c 00 65 00 67 00 65 00 0f 00 10    | .v.i.l.e.g.e....
00 07 00 61 00 6e 00 63 00 68 00 6f 00 76 00 79    | ...a.n.c.h.o.v.y
00 12 00 25 4c 69 62 72 61 72 79 2f 41 70 70 6c    | ...%Library/Appl
69 63 61 74 69 6f 6e 20 53 75 70 70 6f 72 74 2f    | ication Support/
50 72 69 76 69 6c 65 67 65 00 00 13 00 01 2f 00    | Privilege...../.
ff ff 00 00                                        | ....

$ ll /Library/Application\ Support/Privilege/ -R
/Library/Application Support/Privilege/:
total 0
drwxrwxrwx   13 root     admin         442 Nov  9  2002 Common/
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     admin          68 Nov  9  2002 Data/
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     admin          68 Nov  9  2002 Images/
drwxrwxrwx    2 root     admin          68 Nov  9  2002 Installers/
drwxrwxrwx    4 root     admin         136 Nov  9  2002 Licenses/

/Library/Application Support/Privilege/Common:
total 3.1M
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        405k May 17  2002 License Manager*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        211k May 17  2002 drmdc*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        203k May 17  2002 drmdc(classic)*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        290k May 17  2002 drmet*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        292k May 17  2002 drmet(classic)*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        343k May 17  2002 drmgt*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        339k May 17  2002 drmgt(classic)*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        200k May 17  2002 drmlc*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        200k May 17  2002 drmlc(classic)*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        514k May 17  2002 drmpa*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        2.8k May 17  2002 ten-us.vlm*

/Library/Application Support/Privilege/Data:
total 0

/Library/Application Support/Privilege/Images:
total 0

/Library/Application Support/Privilege/Installers:
total 0

/Library/Application Support/Privilege/Licenses:
total 320k
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        4.5k Nov  9  2002 78366EEEC79274A8C837-0.lic*
-rwxrwxrwx    1 root     admin        312k Aug 16  2002 78366EEEC79274A8C837.prf*

perms on those files in privilege are wide open, which causes me some pause.

[wsdr]

mervTormel,

Well, it certainly looks like you found something. However, I couldn't find anything like that on my (authorized) laptop-- nothing at all, no DRM_Home, nor the Privileges directories. Then I noticed the dates of your listings-- Nov 2002. So, unless your clock is wrong, this is not related to iTunes. Have you played with any other DRM mechanisms?

[petey]

OK.

your original post was quite clear about shifting machines. i missed that twice. perhaps i need reading glasses.

---

things now make sense. you SHOULD need a new authorization for the new machine.

if things continue to make sense, you should be able to deathorize the old machine by booting it off of ANY hard drive, not necessarily the original one.

[wsdr]

Thanks. I'm still waiting to install OS X back on the 7600-- 2 hours and counting so far.

[mervTormel]

Quote: Originally posted by wsdr ...Have you played with any other DRM mechanisms?

not to my knowledge. might be M$

thanks for the corroboration; i suspected it wasn't itunes related. dang frustrating not knowing who left the turds.

[petey]

i've never been clear on the whole public/private key thing, ala PGP, and i'm hoping Fairplay will help me understand things.

the way i understand Fairplay is that there is a private (?) key in every AAC file you purchase. when you authorize a machine, the Apple servers place a public (?) key somewhere on your hard drive or machine's NVRAM. this public key includes a machine specific identifier, and some info about the private key.

when you try to play a protected song, the private key in the AAC file needs to match the public key the Apple servers gave you. in turn, this public key needs to match the machine specific info to verify it's on the authorized machine.

my question: am i using the public/private terminology correctly here?

[mromano]

My son is experiencing somewhat the same problems. He opened a new Apple Id account today and downloaded an album. I already have an account, so this is the second on this machine. When he attempts to open his download he gets the message... This computer is not authorized to play... would you like to authorize? He enters his ID & password and gets the message... There was an error storing your authorization info on this computer... the required directory was not found or has a permissions error. I went thru and gave all the permissions I could to the app, his library and anything associated with itunes. Is there a site that has info about the various permission names in each group? I have also tried opening it from my side (admin) but with no luck... Suggestions?

[mervTormel]

mromano, you should contact apple about that. and please report the results back here.

[AKcrab]

Quote: Originally posted by mromano There was an error storing your authorization info on this computer... the required directory was not found or has a permissions error. I went thru and gave all the permissions I could to the app, his library and anything associated with itunes. Is there a site that has info about the various permission names in each group? I have also tried opening it from my side (admin) but with no luck... Suggestions?

I had a similar problem, and the music store support folks sent me to this kbase article. My problem was with a newly downloaded song, so not quite the same. However, I *did* find a folder nestled down a couple levels in my music directory with ownership problems, and changing the owner to 'me' fixed it up.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally posted by mervTormel dang frustrating not knowing who left the turds.

I found a Macromedia page ( http://www.macromedia.com/support/se...rial_error.htm ) that mentions System/Application Support/Privilege/License Manager (But note that that page consistently crashes Safari!)

And the "Privilege" application seems to be the product of Aladdin Knowledge Systems (aladdin.com) (not to be confused with Aladdin Systems which is more familiar to Mac users: alladinsys.com !). Here's the description of the Privilege product:
http://www.ealaddin.com/privilege/default.asp?cf=tl

[yellow]

Quote: I Wrote: "Sorry to hear! I was under the impression that there was some sort of 'counter' in the AAC encoding that interacted with iTunes. I doubt that the info is stored in a file somewhere (begging for a hacking)."

I'm sticking with my story that there's a counter in the encoded music file. When you hit 3 authorizations, that's it.