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DRM-free iTunes Plus: the awful truth

May 31, 2007

iTunes Plus, the DRM-free version of Apple's iTunes Music Store digital download service, is spying on you right now.

ITUNES PLUS: REVIEW

Well, sort of. It turns out that iTunes Plus - which has been marketed on the premise that it frees you from all that control-freakery DRM that stops you playing tracks on whichever devices you like - embeds into each digital track the name and email address of the person who bought it. So if it ends up on BitTorrent, record-industry lawyers will be able to track you down and punish you to the full extent of the law.

In the spirit of scientific discovery, I reluctantly purchased a song from iTunes Plus, and as you can see from the screenshot below, my name and email address are indeed visible in the Get Info dialog. So you certainly won't catch me distributing this track illegally! Or buying any more songs by this 'Robbie Williams'.

robbie williams itunes plus

As Tech Digest points out, it surely won't be long before someone comes up with a program to strip the details out of each track. And it's also difficult to feel hugely sorry for any filesharers who come a cropper as a result of this feature.

No, what rankles is the underhandedness of the thing. This is the sort of creepy, intrusive mechanism that gave technology a bad name during the Sony rootkits scandal - and it hardly provides an incentive for people to buy their music digitally, or to steer clear of P2P sites. Users are free to make up their own minds, and the least Apple could have done is tell people what it was doing.

Opinion: Yo, Apple's uTunes rocks the house!

Opinion: Apple's great DRM-free iTunes Plus swindle

Posted by: David Price

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Comments

Posted by Hmm on May 31, 2007 :

Surely that is a DRM technology of sorts? But to be honest, who'd trust Apple or EMI anyway? They're only out to rip off the consumer and make a fast buck for themselves. The music industry sucks ass.

Posted by Terry on May 31, 2007 :

So what happens when you use the age old method of burning the track to a cd and then ripping that track back into itunes. The DRM was able to be removed so how about this?

Posted by MrMusic on May 31, 2007 :

Well, is that really so bad? What they are doing is removing the DRM that prevents people from using the music in whatever software they like, and on whatever hardware they like. It still gives people the freedom to move their music between their devices as much as they want.
I do not think anyone said that the removal of the DRM would allow people to swap and share music - which is, actually, still illegal and still regarded as piracy.
As a musician and producer, who has lost a lot of money (both from my own work and that of people I have invested in) I think it is good to be able to track where music has come from and where it goes.
Sorry for those who whinge on this - but thanks to peer-to-peer file swapping, myself and many other people trying to make our mark have been the ones to loose out, and we give our full support to this - even if you do not are too narrow minded to see its actual purpose.

Posted by Never Happy on May 31, 2007 :

Hardly the sames as Sonys case....As you say it is quite clearly visable unlike the Root Kit.....Now you can put your music on what ever device you want but get caught out if you pirate. As it should be.

Posted by Lawrence Matthews on May 31, 2007 :

This is hardly unique to iTunes Plus. All songs, videos, etc. purchased on iTunes have the purchaser's email address and name added. This doesn't stop you from doing what you'd like with the song legally - it's hardly some great intrusion of privacy. Sounds like someone here just has an axe to grind.

Posted by Johnny5 on May 31, 2007 :

The internet will win. Screw you corporate money grubbing b'stards.

Posted by David Price on May 31, 2007 :

It's true - Apple embedded your email address and name in tracks before, and still does so in tracks from the normal store.

My gripe, such as it is, is that the whole selling point of iTunes Plus, the main reason you're paying extra (since reports suggest the increased quality is barely noticeable), is its relinquishing of control over digital tracks, so Apple should have relaxed this policy for iTunes Plus. And it hasn't.

On top of this, a lot of people didn't know about the policy because it was never an issue before - and frankly Apple hasn't exactly been falling over itself to publicise it.

Posted by Mike on May 31, 2007 :

I think it's a great idea... BUT there are somebig problems.
Firstly, someone could steal your iPod or whatever, then put the tunes on sites and incrinate a genuine user and secondly, it gives the thief access to your email address, too!
Secondly, I bet someone will (I am a prgrammer.. I reckon I could do it!) strip out the details, and put in other peoples addresses... Maybe putting it out on torrent sites with Steve Job's email address on it, or someone I wanted to frame!

Posted by Chris on May 31, 2007 :

Its the perfect solution I think, although they should have made it more public about they are moving to this instead of DRM.

Personally I would be happy to buy tv & movies with this kind of tracking, aslong as I can play it on any device.

Posted by Josh on May 31, 2007 :

I have just ound this tag editor with a simple google search and it should be able to remove these tags

Posted by Fundi on May 31, 2007 :

I think this is perfectly acceptable way of keeping tabs on music. I'd much rather have that embedded in the file than have a drm'd one.

Posted by Art King on May 31, 2007 :

Is it legal to re-sell (or giveaway, say as a birthday present) downloaded music tracks just like people used to sell/giveaway their old LPs and CDs? If so, how can the original purchaser be held accountable for what other people might do with a file? Can't see this being of much use in a court of law!

Posted by BigDeal on May 31, 2007 :

Why on earth does anyone buy expensive amd compromised music files anyway? CDs via any number of websites are cheaper, higher quality, and give you a backup in case your hard drive fails and you lose your entire music collection. The music industry must be laughing their socks off at the stupidity of their customers.

Posted by Jonny on May 31, 2007 :

I don't see what the problem is here! Everyone said that the reason they didn't like DRM was that it restricted the buyer from being able to play _their_ music on non-apple products and NOT because they want to play pirated music. So what if your email is embedded? You're still the only one who should be playing _your_ purchased music.

Posted by lextonsnol on May 31, 2007 :

Apple certainly ain't no Angels

Posted by Richard on May 31, 2007 :

I don't see the concern really, don't put it on bittorent and you are fine. The invasion of privacy is maybe a concern but word has put a unique identifier into your documents for years.

Posted by chris on May 31, 2007 :

what, well robbie williams older songs are good

Posted by Nick on May 31, 2007 :

I don't really see a problem with having your name in the MP3, it's not as if it's being broadcast to the entire world and it's not particularly covert.

What might be interesting project would be to download the song from two different accounts and see if they were putting in some more subtle digital watermarking into the actual music.

Posted by IanT on May 31, 2007 :

Oh when will the "I am paranoid I'm being watched brigade" grow up and move on ! This is a perfectly reasonable thing for the record companies to do - this everything for free culture will just make - the comment from Jonny5 typical and sad - producing software, music, movies and games costs real money - someone has to pay for it - just because it is easier to steal music than it is to steal and iPOD or Car does not mean that it is right.

Posted by dan on May 31, 2007 :

Or compare two downloads of the same tune by different users and see if the bits are subtly different. Mind you, if I wanted to cunningly hide an encrypted id I would put some noise in there that looked like small changes throughout the file.

Posted by S Wozniak on May 31, 2007 :

Better than stripping out the info is to just change it to "Steve Jobs" and share it on p2p sites everywhere.

Posted by Ringo on June 1, 2007 :

A little bit scary but to be honest it's fair enough. What if someone stole your mp3 player though and subsequently distributed the media you bought on bit torrent. . .?

Posted by Ringo on June 1, 2007 :

A little bit scary but to be honest it's fair enough. What if someone stole your mp3 player though and subsequently distributed the media you bought on bit torrent. . .?

Posted by digger on June 1, 2007 :

Well if you dumb enough to buy anything from Apple (ie a crapPod) then you deserve all of the over-hyped, unreliable, featureless tripe that claims to be a music player

Posted by Warfreak2 on June 1, 2007 :

Like with all systems to protect digital rights of artists, this will affect only the legitimate users and not the pirates. Copyright infringers can easily remove this data from the file by burning to CD and ripping again, or even worse, at some point in the future they may be able to change it to someone else's data, before uploading to a P2P network.

Posted by Mike on June 1, 2007 :

Why would anyone use iTunes anyway? i am not a microsoft lover but iTunes is rubbish. Even compared to media player 11 it is a buggy hard to use app. what ever DRM measures are implemented (adding name and email to a track is kind of DRM) there are thousands of programmers ready to remove it. anyone who burns tracks to cd and then rips them again is using double lossy compressions which is bad. I wish iTunes and other music stores would stick to MP3 with no rubbish attached. o year bit torrent is not P2P it uses different technology so yes i am anti P2P. :-)

Posted by Anon on June 1, 2007 :

iTunes is over priced low quality rubbish, and no one i know uses it. In fact you have to be a real muppet not to spot this...
Music and for that matter all media beyond a few years copyright should be free for all.
After this period very little money is made for artists.
Most people feel this way.
We shouldn't have to pay a Tv license. It should simply be universal media license.
People will always get for free what they believe they should have for free. Law of Nature.

Posted by Lucien Chant on June 1, 2007 :

Last night I downloaded the Plus version of one of my favourite albums by Paul McCartney. Sounds great. £7.99. Burned it to a CD (just in case). CD sounds great. Used iTunes to export tracks to MP3. Copied them to my little non-Apple MP3 player. Sounds great. MP3 files don't have any obvious personal data in them. I'm happy with what I got. I've wanted DRM-free like many other people. I never bought from iTunes before. Now I'm happy to use it. Will be good to get odd tracks and make my own compilations. Me - voting a definite 'for'.

Posted by AD London on June 1, 2007 :

I can see the future you guys want. Let's say the internet wins and everyone "deserves" to get music for free. All the middlemen go out of business and all that's left is the listeners and the musicians....

"Hi, Music Band, can I download your music for free and send it to all my friends?"

"No, f*&k off - I have worked for nothing for 10 years to get this done and you want it for free."

In the end no one will be a musician because we will rip them off.

Nice work internet. Keep up the good work and we won't have any TV shows or Films either.

Posted by DRM on June 1, 2007 :

Simple way to remove this data is burn a CD and rip it back into mp3. Quick and safe.

Posted by Lucien Chant on June 1, 2007 :

The new version 7.2 of iTunes allows you to export your Plus files to MP3 without over-writing the originals. You don't have to do the old burn to disc trick. That's what DRM-free means. Has everyone who is commenting here actually tried it yet?

Posted by Warfreak2 on June 1, 2007 :

Also, you would not put up with anything else you buy having a label on the back with your name and contact details.

Posted by Curious George on June 2, 2007 :

If Apple were serious about this they would have encrypted the data and hidden it away so it would not easily be found. Sticking it in the same place as in the old files hardly seems to add up to some master plan for control.

Posted by dan on June 4, 2007 :

I can see the future you guys want. Let's say the internet wins and everyone "deserves" to get music for free. All the middlemen go out of business and all that's left is the listeners and the musicians....

"Hi, Music Band, can I download your music for free and send it to all my friends?"

"No, f*&k off - I have worked for nothing for 10 years to get this done and you want it for free."

In the end no one will be a musician because we will rip them off.

Nice work internet. Keep up the good work and we won't have any TV shows or Films either.

Hmmm---i`m assuming from that argument that wandering bards and minstrels never existed and that this music malarkey is a fairly new phenomenon.
Somehow i don't quite see music or musicians going the way of the Dodo because of the internet or piracy....If something doesn't work either move on and do something else, or try something different...ever it were thus

Posted by drmors on June 5, 2007 :

Why use these rip-off companies, there are alternatives. The objectives of these companies are to establish protectionism, price fixing, competition blocking and to maximise profit. This is very prevalent in the UK.

Posted by Elle on June 15, 2007 :

just wondering... How do you get out of iTunes plus and just buy the regular song?

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