Monday, June 4, 2007
iTunes Plus Music Embeddeding User Information into Tracks
Posted by Jason Dunn in "NEWS" @ 11:00 AM
"iTunes Plus with DRM-free tracks are finally here, but each track, DRM-free or no, contains the name you used to register iTunes to dissuade you from placing your songs on P2P networks. Apple’s gone partially DRM-free, but a surprising discovery reported online says that your name, your email address and other personal details are embedded into each track that you purchase from iTunes, whether it has DRM to protect it, or not. Following this discovery, the EFF said additional information had been found in iTunes files, possibly amounting to an additional ‘digital watermark’, allowing songs uploaded from iTunes to be easily identified. Unfortunately, hackers are already working on ways to strip this information from iTunes’s DRM-free EMI songs, as well as ‘spoof’ the information to make it appear as through from someone else, as surprise and mild outrage spreads that Apple has included this information with DRM-free music downloads."
I think Apple did the right thing here by embedding user information into the music tracks - if the customer purchased it for personal use, they should have no issues with the music being tagged with their information. If they bought the tracks with the intention of sharing on P2P networks, then they deserve to be tracked down. That's my view on it - what's yours?
I think Apple did the right thing here by embedding user information into the music tracks - if the customer purchased it for personal use, they should have no issues with the music being tagged with their information. If they bought the tracks with the intention of sharing on P2P networks, then they deserve to be tracked down. That's my view on it - what's yours?
