Open Sauce crusader attacks Jobs' Mob

A NORWEGIAN HACKER, dubbed a hero in his country for taking on the movie industry and winning, has turned his attention on Apple.

Jon Lech Johansen, who earned the attention of the film industry when he developed DVD encryption-cracking software, has broken the locks on Apple's treasured wireless music streaming technology.

The lock released on his Web site, "So Sue Me", is a key that helps to unlock the encryption Apple uses for its AirPort Express. Airport Express lets users broadcast digital music from Apple's online iTunes Music Store on a stereo that's not plugged into a computer.

It is creating an interesting row between the two biggest religious extremist groups in IT - Open Source types and the disciples of Jobs. Normally such creatures are snipping at Redmond but ideologically a religious war was inevitable.

Johansen, is an open sourcer and has slammed Apple's proprietary system, which largely restricts Apple's hardware and software products.

To make matters worse, on his web page he has even praised technology by RealNetworks that will make songs from its online music service compatible with the market-dominating Apple iPod portable music player. µ