Much hay has been made about the fact that iTunes Plus tracks contain the name and account name of the purchaser (such information is, and has always been, available in the DRM-encoded files that iTunes sells). We here at MacUser think that this is much ado about nothing—simply don’t share your files, as you’ve already agreed to by buying music from the iTunes Store. And for those worried about their name being inserted into pilfered music, relax: given how easy it is to fake that information, we find it extremely unlikely that a successful legal action will ever be prosecuted.
However, if you still find yourself concerned about the identifying info, let it be known that there are a couple ways for you to remove it. One comes to us from Mac OS X Hints’s Rob “Mac Genius in his own rights” Griffiths: you can use DRM-stripping tool JHymn to strip your name and email from the file. My understanding is that this won’t necessarily work with all music files purchased from the iTunes Store; you may need to be using a version of iTunes prior to 6.0
The pricier but more effective option is courtesy of Macworld Senior Editor Chris Breen. You can use Rogue Amoeba’s excellent $32 editing program Fission, which allows you to losslessly edit AAC files. Since Fission doesn’t recognize the name and email metadata stored in the file, simply resaving your music will strip the info from the file, and you won’t lose quality. On the downside, you’ll have to do this individually for every file you own.
My advice? Bobby McFerrin said it best: “Don’t worry. Be happy.”
I agree. Much ado about nuthin. If you are planning on sharing your music like you couldn't do with protected AAC then it should scare you.
/begin whiny voice
But what if my iPod or my computer gets stolen? My information is out there for everyone to see!!!
/end whiny voice
Well, if that happens, there's a lot more info that will be perused from you iPod and computer before they start breakin' down your music files to grab an email address. Geesh. Next thing you know, they'll be complaining that their Moneydance or Quicken data files include their bank account numbers.
OK, at first I thought the same as Walt. But then a friend of mine emails me with this: If I buy the CD and rip it I don't have any personal data in the file. What's the difference? Why is buying electronically different from ripping a CD?
Dunno. Initially, to me it seems like a fairly benign way to keep those wacky RIAA dogs at bay. But what IS the difference?
@ msadesign: I think it's built in as more of a deterrent. If someone IMs you and asks you for such and such a song, and you have it readily available, you might be tempted to just give it to them. But if you've got to go through some other processes first (like burning and re-ripping… chances are pretty good he's going to go elsewhere to locate the goods.
Although the other processes might seem insignificant to you and I, for every one of us out there, there are another 50 (yeah… I'm just making numbers up, but you get the idea) that have no idea what to do. Us folk that talk and share in these forums are far more technically proficient than those other 50. I am about 1 of 10 in an internal organization of around 200. And I may be reaching at that 10. Only us 10 would be able to buy music from iTunes, burn to CD, and rip back into iTunes. Out of that 200, there might be 50 that buy songs online, and that's all they can do. When you start talking about changing format from AAC to MP3, their eyes start to glaze over.