Anybody that’s read any of my Apple posts before, especially those that have read the posts that I haven’t published, know that I have a certain dislike for Apple. More accurately I dislike the fanboyism aspect inherent in 99% of Apple fans. It’s a disease that no amount of rounded corners can cure…
Apple this week found out that they’re more than willing to bite the hand that feeds when several people lashed out on discovering that the new DRM-free tracks on iTunes contain personal information about the buyer which could then be used to identify them when the song gets found on a file-sharing site…
Now I’d like to run to the defence of Apple here and tell everybody that’s bitching and whining to shut the fuck up. I apologise for my language but seriously! You got what you wanted… You can use the music how you like within the realms of the law.
The only reason you’re making so much fuss is because you can’t break the law unchecked. Don’t get me wrong, I hate DRM as much as the next person but just because you can copy something doesn’t mean you should.
If you knowingly buy something to redistribute it on a file-sharing network, you *should* be busted because you’re an incompetent fool. DRM-free does not license you to copy things around for anything but personal use. Live with it.
Technical argument
From a technical point of view, Apple could have easily embedded a numerical identifier to do the same thing so you have to ask the question: why are they sticking names in?
The only conclusion (I can reach, anyway) is that they want people to find this — they want people to know that they can track what you’re sharing with other people because that’s clearly not covered in the licensing terms when you buy a track.
Although I’m not saying I’ve never copied anything, as a content creator, I have to respect the model these guys have and I would be severely peeved if somebody ripped my stuff and redistributed it onto a load of people.
Nevertheless this doesn’t mean that every iTunes customer is going to know about this information. I’d wager there are certainly a few lawsuits on the way helped by this sort of embedded data.