DISQUS

Decklane · 2 years ago

I think 'watermarking' is a fine alternative to using DRM. However paying more the content and then not being given all the facts about how they could be monitoring me makes me squirm like crazy as a consumer. When will they treat the customers with the same amount of respect that they expect from them.

lIHd · 2 years ago

Including personal information in a music file, particularly if it is used to analyze data or enforcement copyright, is a form of DRM i.e using technological measures to manage (by tracking user's) digital rights.

It would appear that apple is being a tad disingenuous in claiming that their music is DRM free.

Steve O'Hear (editor) · 2 years ago

@Decklane

I agree that it's wrong to charge more for DRM-free music, and also wrong not to tell customers that there is hidden data in the file.

@lIHd

I still wouldn't call it DRM because it's not managing your rights using technology. It doesn't stop you doing anything legal e.g. making a backup, or converting to use on different devices. It just makes copies tracable -- which of course you *should* be told about.

lIHd · 2 years ago

When I think of DRM I usually think of it as being made up of two components, the policy part (the rules), that are set up to define what rights are being managed, and the technical measures that are used to implement the policy.

In this case the policy is to make the music files uniquely identifiable to users so that the music can be traced back to the individual who originally purchased the file (and who potentially breached the copyright holders rights when they shared it). And the technical measure taken is the insertion of a unique identifier into that file.

Arguably, Apple's approach to including private information in those files could be interpreted as DRM, it's not the same type of DRM implemented in systems like CSS or AACS, but I would argue that it still could be defined as DRM (if someone, say a large media company, wanted to make that argument in court), and I wonder if any tools or measures taken to strip this information from those files would fall foul of the DMCA?

Annoyed · 2 years ago

The sensationalism is killing me. How do they 'Hide' the account details? Right click and Get Info on any itunes purchased track and it gives you all of this information here in plain English. Its been this way since forever and has continued with iTunes +