Sunday, February 19, 2006
Hey! That's Some Stranger's Music in My iTunes!
Posted by Chris Gohlke in "SOFTWARE" @ 08:00 PM
"OK, now this is just plain weird. I'm in a hotel in New York City at the moment, doing a bit of work on my PowerBook laptop. A moment ago, I popped into iTunes for a moment, and discovered...the music collection of a stranger. Sitting there alongside my own playlists. Let's protect this music lover's privacy by calling him "Al." I was able to browse through Al's sizable song library (he seems to be a Spice Girls fan, though he's also partial to movie soundtracks and, like me, has a weakness for the Carpenters) and even listen to a track. No mystery, really: iTunes has a feature that lets you share your music with other people on a network. When you're on a hotel's high-speed Internet connection, you are, indeed on a network. One which you share with a bunch of perfect strangers. Al, no doubt, is a fellow guest here."
Luckily, it seems that while this feature is not widely known, it is turned off by default. Still why is this type of peer to peer sharing considered to be OK?
Luckily, it seems that while this feature is not widely known, it is turned off by default. Still why is this type of peer to peer sharing considered to be OK?
