Not so cool DRM-free tracks from iTunes
The launch of music tracks free of digital locks on iTunes has been overshadowed by the discovery that they contain data about who bought them. Some fear this data could be used to identify the owner of the tracks if they turn up on file-sharing sites. The tracks from record company EMI cost more and are of a better quality than standard iTunes songs. Apple has yet to comment on what it plans to do with the information embedded in the music files. The tracks without the digital locks, known as Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, officially went on sale on 30 May under the iTunes Plus banner. The downloads cost $1.29 (99p) rather than $0.99 (79p).
Apple uses a technology known as Fairplay to limit what people can do with downloads. Fairplay can be circumvented by burning tracks to a CD and then converting them to another format. News site Ars Technica was among the first to discover that downloaded tracks free of Fairplay have embedded within them the full name and account information, including e-mail address, of who bought them. It suggested that this information could be an anti-piracy measure as it could help work out who was putting downloads on file-sharing sites. But it also added that the user information was found on all the tracks that people buy on iTunes whether free of DRM or not. Two words for Apple: this sucks. Did they really think noone will notice this?
Source: BBC, Ars Technica
No such thing as a free lunch. There is always a catch!
so they include your email address, so? it’s not a problem if you’re not sharing your songs (breaking the law). there is nothing wrong with this.
^ apple fan spoken
The sence is enough for us
Funny part if this was Microsoft doing it, we’d prob have 50 posts bashing them, but since its Apple, most ppl just brush it away lol
Exactly, Grandios.
Point is, whether they do this or not, doesn’t matter. That they kept it hidden, that matters.
Installed iTunes when I read about the DRM free tracks. Uninstalling it now.
for the record, i have never bought anything from apple and never will. truth is, you can’t think of a single reason why this is a bad thing. god forbid songs that you buy should have your name embedded in them. it’s like writing your name on the cd case without actually damaging anything.
I think what the problem here is, that first apple has not said anything that they would do such a thing and secondly people will feel like their freedom is in danger. If the name, email address etc is saved in the music file, spammers might use that to their advantage in combination with trojans for example searching for these files.
Its basically you have bought a cd, and if u wish that everybody knows what u bought u’ll put it up in the living room, if u dont want people to know what music u listen to u hide it. And obviously with this kind of measures everybody always will know what u r listening to, therefore invading ur privacy without u allowing them to.
I personally dont like that idea…
You must be retarded to have a problem with this. We finally have DRM free music from itunes and is spreading. It may be overpriced but thats imaterial. By buying a song of itunes THEY ALREADY KNOW WHO YOU ARE. If you’re going to distribute music bought form itunes, its only reasonable that they have some countermeasure, and this one is the commen sense aproach that doesnt effect you in any way unless you are distributing. distributing music bought form online stores is a stupid idea anyway and it won’t effect our beloved CD rips. What some of you are askikng is an unworkable business practice.
As far as I’m ocncerned its a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
Peace =)
exactly. buying music and having the company put your name on it isn’t a bad thing at all. you’re all thinking about it from the illegal perspective (which i guess is sort of expected). finally, higher quality, DRM-free music. to top it off they write your details on YOUR music.
maybe they didn’t mention it because they have more faith in their customers….
This is a very good reason to keep getting your music from the scene.
has already been brainwashed by 
Apple
Apple makes me wanna puke.
Also anyone who thinks this is a good
Yep you can add Sony’s name to that list - people seem far more forgiving of Apple!!
$pple can take their DRMtunes and shove it up their A$$intosh.
i was considering installing itunes on linux now they got rid of the drm, but not now.
has anyone tried to inject fake info, or remove it, or is it checksummed (could remove that too!) it would be quite funny to have a load of warez itunes files with steve jobs name/address in it!
so p2p is *still* the only place to get drm-free, personal-info-free and not-a-stupid-file-format music!
don’t care, don’t use apple products.
anyway who would pay for the music that is being spewed out these days.
I’m beginig to get a bit annoyed at people who seem to hate music sold to them just for the fact that its produced by a business the size of apple or sony. Labeling people who appreciate a decent service, emerging from the carnage that is the current legit MP3 services is rediculous. In the end, a business has to make money. Period.
The vast majority of customers who use services like itunes won’t notice anything different about the service now compared to a year ago. Only those in the know will understand the changes underway right now in the emerging market (and face it, legit donwloading is a very young business model). The only reason itunes can sell songs online is because the RIAA allow it under their terms, else there will be no servies at all. I’m not fan of any large corperation but we ahve in front of us a half victory over them. DRM is on it’s way out (at least in terms fo music) and will continue this way as long as consumers keep the pressure on. But not as long as when they offer us a service that meets some of the demands we as comsumers have and we keep blowing ti apart by being completely unreasonable, we won’t progress further.
If the songs never leave your pc or mp3 player, who cares if they contain personal information. People are only worried because when they pirate this shit all over the internet, they might get caught!
You can just hex edit the name out, still plays
I think its fair that they some how embed a way of tracking and identifying a particular file and whom and where it was downloaded from, in the exact same way workprints and screeners have copy numbers, etc… but including names, email addresses etc. so people outside of apple itunes store can access personal information is wrong…
I think it boils down to anyone who thought iTunes was palletable to begin with think it’s better now. Those of us who think it is an amazingly overcomplicated, bloated, pointless, inconvenient waste of time, still think so.
My kids wanted iPods because they were cool, so I’ve had to deal with “iStuff”. The best part about my own generic “uncool” mp3 player is that all I deal with are plain old standard simple drop and drag music files that I can put anywhere I want. This whole Apple thing confuses me.
You see all you really have to do is hex them out. As far as I know the song still plays. If you really want to have fun with it change the name in the hex code to steve jobs Owner of Macintosh. Or Use fake names when dealing with anything on the internet like most normal people.
I want to share music with my friends. I don’t want Apple or any other company stopping me from sharing my interests. This bs is from weird robot types pretending to be human…they have no friends, no culture, no creativity…they’re not human…just money-grabbing robots…
MacRumors conducts an independent investigation and they conclude that there is NO
stenography going on.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=3696360&postcount=111
I don’t care about that metadata really. Big deal… If you do care, just rip it out. At least they have a legal way to support the artists (yes, and music industry) now that doesn’t include DRM.
look at how many $pple shills/apologists there are here.
if micro$oft fucked its users, everyone would be up in arms yet look at how $pple screws the public and yet there are so many defending them…
look at how many $pple shills/apologists there are here.
if micro$oft $ucked its users, everyone would be up in arms yet look at how $pple screws the public and yet there are so many defending them…