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May 31, 2007

itunes_store

The man is keeping tabs on you

Posted May. 31, ’07, 6:09 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | iTunes » iTunes Store

iTunes Bread Crumbs Just when you though all was right with the online music sales universe, you find out that you’re being watched. Sort of. Those excellent iTunes Plus tracks that come in high quality, DRM free, have your account information in them. Not your password of course, but they do have your account ID and name.

Today, Apple released its first “iTunes Plus” tracks, music in 256 kbps AAC format with no DRM. So you can copy this music to any computer, play it on any device or computer that supports AAC, with no restrictions. However, while there is no DRM (digital rights management) in these tracks, there are breadcrumbs.

If you look into an iTunes Plus file—just open one with a text editor—you’ll see both your name and your iTunes account ID.

Connect the dots. If your copy of the music track ends up on P2P services, it won’t be long before you can expect your account to suddenly stop working on iTunes. Long story short, Apple’s not going to force you to do the right thing using technology anymore. They’ll just punish you when you do the wrong thing. Seems fair enough to me.


7 Comments

Kirk McElhearn said:

It's not clear what will happen, but the concept is interesting. Let's say that Apple, since they monitor P2P networks, finds files you've "let loose". They might send you a nice email, explaining that you've done a Bad Thing, and reminding you that they could close your iTunes account. This might be more of a piracy disuasion than anything else, since people will know their files are RFIDed.

This said, I'm not sure I really like that idea either. While it's not Right to distribute these files, I know lots of indie bands are more than happy for their music to be heard, so this might be something they want.

It's all up in the air for now; we'll have to see what becomes of this. I think it could be interesting to do some metrics to see which files get shared, and how much, and compare that with increased sales.

Kirk

May 31, 2007 7:43 AM
Tony Di Giacomo said:

I noticed this too, however I checked other iTunes purchased music (the ones with DRM) and it seems the account infomation has always been there.

May 31, 2007 8:52 AM
macfaninpdx said:

Ridiculous. While I may not agree with the decision to show the purchaser info in the tag information of purchased songs (whether or not it is for the purpose of discouraging file-sharing), it is a preposterous claim that Apple will "punish you when you do the wrong thing." Besides the fact that it is not Apple's job to police the security of the content purchased from the Apple Store, it is pure conjecture to assume that Apple is after us, and they want to bully us into thinking we shouldn't copy music. Now the recording indusrty... that's a whole other ball of worms.

May 31, 2007 9:11 AM
Mulder said:

This embedding of your name and account ID in iTunes purchases isn't limited to iTunes Plus--it's in all iTunes songs, even if you removed the DRM using Hymn or it's variants.

May 31, 2007 10:07 AM
Dave-O said:

See, now this makes perfect sense. Punish the people who commit crimes for the crimes they commit, not everyone who purchases music.

Of course, the cancellation of iTunes accounts is entirely speculation on your part. How hard is it to create a new one? I think this has more to do with enforcement (hefty fines) and data collection.

May 31, 2007 11:20 AM
Matt said:

All content downloaded from the iTunes Store has always had your username stored in it. It's also not that difficult to remove either.

May 31, 2007 11:24 AM
jack frost said:

I agree with macfaninpdx. It's preposterous to think that Apple will spend time and money downloading files from P2P networks and checking them for user id's and names. There are millions of files already on these networks, and it would simply be a huge waste of resources for Apple. And it's definitely not their responsibility or their place.

May 31, 2007 3:09 PM

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