Jan Johansen became infamous because he wanted a Linux-based DVD player. Nils Schneider merely wanted the iPod to be all it could be.

In order to get a Linux DVD player, Johansen hacked the standard DVD encryption scheme with a program called DeCSS. The result was one of the biggest legal hassles of our time.

Schneider, 17, has now managed to get Linux working on his iPod by hacking its Digital Rights Management (DRM) system , according to New Scientist magazine.

Johansen's program, of course, had a lawful purpose, the creation of a Linux DVD player. But in order to do that he broke the copyright act. Schneider's program also has a lawful purpose, namely to run Linux on the iPod. But to do that he got through the iPod's DRM system, which in theory could let the iPod run any file at all.

But it's how Schneider did it I found most intriguing.

What do you think they'll do to him?

Schneider told New Scientist that Bernard Leach, a UK software engineer who helped set up the iPod Linux project, worked out how to control the piezoelectric component within the iPod, which clicks when you load songs.

Schneider then played the bootloader code, a program which lets the iPod start up, as sound. He then recorded the sounds onto another PC, which was programmed to turn the sounds back into code. Loading this code was like an "open sesame" to the iPod, allowing him to load anything he wanted onto it.

"It changes the iPod from a consumer device, where the manufacturer sets the rules about what it will and won't do, into a general purpose device," a computer, he said.

It transforms the iPod into something it was never meant to be.

Watch for fireworks.

So, what of Herr Schneider? Give him a medal, or throw him in gaol? Let us know in TalkBack. And thanks to Addict3d for the link.