When you Buy iTunes, Your Username/Email are Embedded in the Song

[NJCher]

These scumbags! Look at this:

it suggested that this information could be an anti-piracy measure as it could help work out who was putting downloads on file-sharing sites.

But it also added that the user information was found on all the tracks that people buy on iTunes whether free of DRM or not.

:mad:

This is from a story on the new DRM-free (or so-called) songs being sold at iTunes. The article explains that these songs, too, have your username, account info, e-mail, etc.:

News site Ars Technica was among the first to discover that downloaded tracks free of Fairplay have embedded within them the full name and account information, including e-mail address,
of who bought them.

In other words, any song you buy at iTunes has this information in it.

See the full story here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6711215.stm

What an outrage!

Tell me how this is going to make people want to buy music "legitimately." Every time these guys try to nail the (free) downloads, they end up screwing themselves. In a way it's funny but it's NOT funny when people's names and account information are being used and manipulated to suit their purposes.



Cher

[Jonathan50]

1. Not only that...

Even if you rip your own mp3s from vinyl records, iTunes can tell what artist, album and song with as little as three seconds of audio per song..

It's called "waveform recognition"

Read about it here..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=242x14484

[NJCher]

5. that's pretty interesting technology

and useful.

But your name and account number embedded in some music file? That is so wrong and on so many levels.

And in reference to the posts below, I don't buy iTunes, I don't post my songs at music downloading sites, but I am still outraged because this is sneaky. If they told you first, then it would be a different situation. But they do not.



Cher

[Lerkfish]

2. well, mac users have been aware of this since itunes first came out

there was some heated discussion of it at the time.
I would point out that your concern about email is because purchasing itunes, at least on a mac, is tied to your email, and to how many authorized electronic devices can legally play the music you've downloaded. (up to 4 devices).
Although I can understand the concern, there is at least a legitimate business reason for hte record keeping, as opposed to TIA (total information awareness) data mining of ALL your information illegally by the govt.

I'm more upset at the latter and the purposes for the latter than the former.

[MilesColtrane]

3. I'm not concerned...

...because I don't plan on putting the music I've purchased on a site for everyone to download.

[WinkyDink]

4. I'm even less concerned, as I don't download music.

[Jonathan50]

6. It's actually pretty easy to defeat..

Just convert your tunes to .wav files and then back to mp3 or ogg vorbis or whatever.

CDex does a nice job on batch conversions.

http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/

Did I mention it's easy to use and free?

Just run it in the background and you'll never even notice it's there.

[newyawker99]

7. I saw this on TV this morning. It makes me not want

to buy this stuff. They also reported that there
are the same problems in certain pictures too.