Friday, June 1st 2007
Apple’s DRM-free music has a twist
Now that Apple has finally led the way and launched its DRM-free downloads for EMI music, you could be forgiven for thinking music fans should be happy. Unfortunately, Apple has removed the protection only to give downloaders another surprise: the tracks still contain data about who bought them. Apple launched the DRM-free service two days ago, which allows iTunes users to download higher quality music without DRM-protection (the technology that prevents music from being played on certain devices in an attempt to combat file sharing) for a higher price of $1.29. However, even tracks without any DRM have the user's account information, including the buyer's email address, embedded into them. Apple hasn't given any comment yet, but music fans fear that Apple is not respecting their privacy and are worried it could be used to identify them if the songs end up on file sharing sites. Obviously this would be useful to prevent illegal sharing, but if the data could be easily spoofed then it may lead to people being wrongly accused of sharing music.
Source:
BBC News
17 Comments on Apple’s DRM-free music has a twist
I dont see this as being really a bad thing, only those who may pirate the music (though I dont see anyone paying $1.29 a song and giving it away for free, just doesnt make sense) could complain.
Seriously though, if you're gonna pay $1.29 a song, you should be able to do what you want with it.
If you want higher quality, you'll need to look to another format.
If this is a simple M4a... and not DRM protected... how long do you think it'll take for a program to come out that just strips the information out and converts it to whatever you want? :rolleyes:
Think smarter not harder people, come on.
AAC and WMA are far superior codecs to MP3, which has long outlived its time.
The industry just needs to get together on a modern, standardized, and open codec. AAC is a good start, the Zune and 360 play it along with iPod hardware. But it still has licensing fees...
OGG is alright. I havent used it much, but it isn't going to be adopted by any major music store because of its open source nature; hectic and always changing.
Personally, I rip cd's to FLAC and then transcode that to 128kbps AAC for my ipod.
Someday...when everyone has at least 1TB. :laugh: