Friday, January 18, 2008

Confirmed: Change Your System Time, Watch Your iTunes Rentals Forever


Movie rentals from iTunes 7.6? Awesome. That pesky 24-hour viewing window once you've started the film? Not so much. And even if you get a little trigger-happy and click play only two MB into the download, the self-destruct timer activates. What if you need just a little bit more time? Or maybe a whole lot more time. We'd heard you could extend the doomsday clock by toying around with your system's date/time. We tested it and it's true. There is, of course, a catch or two.Gizmodo peeps rented 300 and started playing it only 5MB into the download—it was fast and smooth. Very nice. But now I've only got 9 hours left to experience the magic. With time running out, They closed iTunes, set the clock back and restarted the program to see if it does bestow a Lazarus effect. Sure enough, it did. They even got a little mad with power here, turning the clock back to 2003 to see just how potent this elixir is. iTunes knew they were playing God and messing with time on a massive scale. But got three years to watch the movie anyway! Unfortunately, this trick does not work to revive already dead flicks—once they expire, they're automatically dumped.

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