Project: libnetMD - free USB->MiniDisc software for Linux and Mac
Sonys interface to put music on MD-players is proprietary, cryptographically secured and the file-format ATRAC3 also digital restrictions management inside. http://libnetmd.sourceforge.net/ already reverse engineered all non-encrypted commands, but the most interesting one (copy music digitally via USB on the player) is not yet implemented. The free and open source alternative has stopped active development http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org/wiki/libnetmd due to technical problems. Cracking the DRM seems possible, but certainly not trivial.
Your task, should you decide to accept it, is to revive the project, add full support to libnetMD for putting music from the PC to the MiniDisc-player and adapt the GUI http://www.pdr.cx/projects/gnetmd/main/ to the new functionality so users can try it and verify your achievement easily.
- submitted on 8 Jun 2008 20:51 by Matthias M.
- Tags: C, netmd, libnetmd, minidisc, md, drm, cryptography, reverse-engineering, ATRAC3, experts_needed
- Status: development (since 2009-01-15 03:30:01)
- Bids: 4 (€100), Offers: 1 (min €100)
Voting
The following summarizes the current state of the voting about which offer to accept:
- €100 by nopsled1: lawyer lyer
€100(4 votes)
Requirements
There are no user contributed requirements yet.4 Bids (€100)
The following donations will be made to the developer upon successful completition of the project:
- €30 by adrian82 (14 Dec 2008 16:54)
- €25 by Matthias M. (16 Dec 2008 21:26)
- €25 by el_delinquente (7 Jan 2009 00:14)
- €20 by manuelp (13 Jan 2009 23:28)
Offers
- €100 by nopsled1: lawyer lyer
Comments
If that efforts included HiMD-support I'd pay up to 100 Euro for funding this project. I could provide alot of information regarding HiMD-recorders what I have learned about them so far.
A good approach for HiMD might be debugging the Transfer-Software for MacOS-X, which is called "HiMD Music Transfer 2.0". This one is not so bloated like the Windows-Software "SonicStage" and also it supports fewer models. The Mac-Software does not talk to the HiMD-Walkman through a special protocol but communicates over mass-storage protocol. In order to support HiMD in Linux one would only need to understand the file-format and the encryption of the music on a HiMD. Again, I would fund HiMD with much higher dues.
Adrian
by adrian82 on 14 Dec 2008 17:09
Hello,
just to add. Today I set up a wiki to collect all information in order to develop minidisc-software for Linux:
https://wiki.physik.fu-berlin.de/linux-minidisc/doku.php
Adrian
by adrian82 on 15 Dec 2008 02:47
I would like to retrieve my pcm recordings directly from the Minidisc (HiMD format). I would contribute to that.
by rreis.kyriu on 11 Mar 2009 13:23
If you want to contribute, why don't add some money to the project ? One of my friend also has been working on this for weeks now, but there is still some way to go.
Adrian
by adrian82 on 11 Mar 2009 13:30
What's the status on the efforts? Will there be NetMD support on Linux any time soon?
by Matthias M. on 7 Jul 14:01
Hi,
YES. I'm very pleased to be able to announce that we have fully reverse-engineered the encryption within SonicStage/OpenMG. This means, that it is now possible to fully support NetMD and HiMD on Linux and other operating systems (even Windows 7/x64 or MacOS).
It is now possible to transfer tracks to NetMD with the Python scripts that we provide. It even supports SP downloads which are not supported by SonicStage! However, the code is still very buggy and experimental, but it works nevertheless. We have one guy in Bergen/Norway working on porting the Python code to C/C++ so that we will have a comfortable GUI soon.
For HiMD, we have currently upload support for all recordings. This means, that you can record tracks on _any_ HiMD Walkman in _any_ format supported by the Walkman and transfer the tracks to your PC with our software. Downloads to HiMD are known to work, however we haven't implemented them yet. We just need more man power and maybe some donations ;). You can donate on our Wiki homepage (https://wiki.physik.fu-berlin.de/linux-minidisc) if you like.
There is one limitation with the whole software at the moment, however.
Both NetMD and HiMD require secret decryption keys which are intellectual property of Sony Corp. or other companies. We have these keys but have not officially disclosed them yet as we might run into legal problems with the aforementioned companies. You can contact us via the provided email address in the wiki and ask for instructions/patches to use the full functionality of our software and receive the secret keys. We're in negotiations with Sony America at the moment who have promised me to discuss the issue with some lawyers and get back to me ASAP. Maybe we can fully disclose everything legally soon.
Please do NOT post questions regarding the keys and the unofficial versions on our mailing lists. Use my GMail address for any questions regarding that. If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask them, too.
Adrian
by adrian82 on 7 Jul 14:27
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