Don't Torrent That iTunes Song

[Osiris]

Don't Torrent That iTunes Song
Just because Apple is now selling tunes without DRM, you'd better think twice before you start sharing your music with everyone. While this may seem obvious to most of us, you'd be surprised how many people actually think no DRM means they are free to share their music with everyone.

Sure, you can now download music from the iTunes store without DRM but that doesn't mean you should just willy nilly start sharing that music with your friends. For one thing, it's illegal. For another, your account information is embedded into that m4a music file.

TUAW Tip: Don't Torrent That Song... - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

 

[Osiris]

Many users were quite happy when Apple announced that they would be selling drm free music at their iTunes online store. It would finally be possible to make one purchase and be able to play the music in your car, mp3 player, computer and other devices. Prices for the drm free music were set higher than for music with drm which did not get the bad feedback that I expected it to get.
The possibility to download drm free music is live and several websites examined the new files that were downloaded after a purchase has been made. As Arstechica puts it: “We started examining the files this morning and noticed our names and e-mail addresses in the files”. This information is however stored in all songs that are downloaded from the iTunes store, not only in the drm free songs.
While it has not been a real concern before it could become one now. I don't think that a lot of users will purchase music at the iTunes store and then add it to their p2p folder to share it with the world. The professional groups that release mp3 albums get their albums before store release and spread it world wide in a matter of minutes which means that they will not use the iTunes store to get hold of the music.
Someone who purchases the music will probably share some of the songs with close friends but definitely not spread it beyond that. It could be that some that lack the technical knowledge will move the music from the store into a folder that is shared in a p2p network.
What I want to say is this. It is highly unlikely that a lot of users will spread the drm free music into p2p networks. My concern is that other users might get hold of the songs and spread them. What if someone hacks your computer or finds your mp3 player and adds them to his p2p shared folder ?
Will you be responsible if millions of users share songs with your name in them ?


DRM Free Music from iTunes hides account info

 

[veg1992]

that reminds me of that Wierd Al Yankovich song: "Don't Download this Song"