Patch that disables Subsonic license checking and validation

README.md

Update 2020 Edition: Use something like Airsonic instead. Subsonic's code is closed source at this point, and thus this patch is useless, unless you are using a 9 year old verison of Subsonic for some reason.

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A patch to disable the licensing functionality in Subsonic, a GPL-licensed media streaming server/web interface. Use of the mobile apps requires you to get a license after 30 days of trial. You obtain a license via donation.

Except that's not a donation. So, here's a patch to fix that. Support the Subsonic project with a donation that's actually a donation. The program is developed and maintained very well.

Steps to victory

svn co https://subsonic.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/subsonic/trunk subsonic

Check out a different branch if you want a specific version.

From the branch root:

patch -p0 < nolicense.patch
mvn install
cd subsonic-booter/
mvn install

Replace the downloaded subsonic.war and subsonic-booter-with-dependencies.jar with the newly compiled ones. Compilation of subsonic-booter is probably optional. It's just a precaution in case the branch you are compiling is newer than whatever version you downloaded.

nolicense.patch

Index: subsonic-main/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/subsonic/service/SettingsService.java
===================================================================
--- subsonic-main/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/subsonic/service/SettingsService.java	(revision 2462)
+++ subsonic-main/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/subsonic/service/SettingsService.java	(working copy)
@@ -589,10 +589,7 @@
     }
 
     public boolean isLicenseValid(String email, String license) {
-        if (email == null || license == null) {
-            return false;
-        }
-        return license.equalsIgnoreCase(StringUtil.md5Hex(email.toLowerCase()));
+        return true;
     }
 
     public String getDownsamplingCommand() {
@@ -1136,31 +1133,7 @@
     }
 
     private void validateLicense() {
-        String email = getLicenseEmail();
-        Date date = getLicenseDate();
-
-        if (email == null || date == null) {
-            licenseValidated = false;
-            return;
-        }
-
         licenseValidated = true;
-
-        HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
-        HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(client.getParams(), 120000);
-        HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(client.getParams(), 120000);
-        HttpGet method = new HttpGet("http://subsonic.org/backend/validateLicense.view" + "?email=" + email +
-                "&date=" + date.getTime() + "&version=" + versionService.getLocalVersion());
-        try {
-            ResponseHandler<String> responseHandler = new BasicResponseHandler();
-            String content = client.execute(method, responseHandler);
-            licenseValidated = content != null && content.contains("true");
-            LOG.debug("License validated: " + licenseValidated);
-        } catch (Throwable x) {
-            LOG.warn("Failed to validate license.", x);
-        } finally {
-            client.getConnectionManager().shutdown();
-        }
     }
 
     public void validateLicenseAsync() {

so I had no luck with replacing the WAR, nor finding a complete supersonic download, and I do not think that recompiling the thing every time, not to mention setting up the development environment, is an easy thing for most non-dev people. The simplest solution for me was to fool the license check via a hosts DNS redirect to a local (or remote) server that serves up /backend/validateLicense.view, and returns true.

A killer solution would be to integrate this hack into subsonic itself, by placing the file into installdir/jetty/3081/webapp (varies I think) so that it's own server would serve it up, then just applying the dns change via whatever means. (local HOSTS file on server, router, dnsmasq) But I couldn't get that to work, since if a GET is made for a .view file on subsonic's jetty, it does it's java function lookup instead of delivering the file. (lookup fails since there is no backend classes obviously) Does anyone know any jetty voodoo like similar to an apache redirect, which could be installed by simply placing a file in that jetty 'server-root' folder? For now, I just used a different server to host the file, and it validates the license check fine. (success is donation link/heart goes away) But it would be nice if the solution was all in one, more elegant I suppose.

Note that this kills the following (fairly useless) features: remote settings storage, new version alerts, etc.. that DNS redirect will prevent all phoning home.

Cheers, from a person that would donate if they could.

Here's a current diff for upstream version 4.7 of Subsonic: https://gist.github.com/3767624

I can't get this to work. I've installed subsonic from source in my home dir ~/subsonic, I make a file in this dir called noLicence.patch and run the commands, but I get "Hunk #1 Failed [...]" errors. How can I fix this?

In case anybody is still encountering this Gist on Google, please note that there have been recent changes to licensing code which invalidates this patch entirely. My Fork is the only one I'm aware of that is keeping current with upstream Subsonic and does not add bells+whistles.

Also for anyone also finding this Gist from search engines, consider looking at https://github.com/airsonic/airsonic , which is a fork based on the latest open-source subsonic code.

Didn't even realize this was still relevant. In fact, forgot it even existed. I updated the gist again.