p2pnet.net news:- Apple is now selling DRM-free EMI downloads, but it’s charging a whacking great $1.30 and for each one.

And as TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) quickly noted, although the hardcore DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control software is gone, Apple still sneakily has your account information, that’s to say your full name and account email, hidden in the tracks.

Ars Technica’s Ken Fisher picked up on the story which was in turn noticed by at least one mainstream media page, the BBC, which correctly observes it won’t take long for some canny hacker to write an application that’ll strip out the user data.

But why should it be necessary?

Apple has tried to blame DRM on Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big 4 music cartel. But it’s been one of the most blatant, not to say most criticised, users of digital restrictions managementvia an application called, ironically, FairPlay.

Says Ars Technica:

Apple embeds your account information in all songs sold on the store, not just DRM-free songs. Previously it wasn’t much of a big deal, since no one could imagine users sharing encrypted, DRMed content. But now that DRM-free music from Apple is on the loose, the hidden data is more significant since it could It also wonders what Apple would do with the data.

The mere presence of the data in a file found on a share is not an unassailable indicator of copyright infringement, says Fisher, adding:

“That said, it would be trivial for iTunes to report back to Apple, indicating that ‘Joe User’ has M4As on this hard drive belonging to ‘Jane Userette,’ or even ‘two other users.’ This is not to say that Apple is going to get into the copyright enforcement business. What Apple and indeed the record labels want to watch closely is: will one user buy music for his five close friends? The entertainment industry is obsessed with the idea of ‘casual piracy,’ or the occasional sharing of content between friends. I wouldn’t be surprised if some data was being analyzed in aggregate, although Apple’s current privacy policy does not appear to allow for this. As with the dust-up over the mini-store, Apple should clarify what this embedded data is used for.”

Apple, “has yet to comment on what it plans to do with the information embedded in the music files,” says the Beeb.

Slashdot it!

Also See:
DRM-free - iTunes DRM-free downloads, May 31, 2007
TUAW - TUAW Tip: Don’t Torrent That Song…, May 30, 2007
Ars Technica - Apple hides account info in DRM-free music, too, May 30, 2007
BBC - Anger over DRM-free iTunes tracks, June 1, 2007

f your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.

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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2007 at 6:24 am and is filed under DRM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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