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'DRM-free' iTunes songs raise concerns
California (AP) -- Apple Inc.'s
recent rollout of songs without copy protection
software at its iTunes Store has given consumers
new flexibility, but questions have emerged over
the company's inclusion of personal data in purchased
music tracks.
Are the songs that are being
billed as free of so-called digital rights management
technology really "DRM-free" or are
there still strings attached?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation,
a consumer watchdog group, said the embedded user
information in the purchased track raises privacy
issues.
Apple declined to comment.
The trendsetting Cupertino-based company has
always embedded user information -- a user name
and e-mail -- into its copy-protected tracks.
But until the market-leading iTunes Store began
offering DRM-free music last week, no one raised
much of a ruckus.
DRM technology puts a sort of software lock on
digital songs or movies, dictating where and how
the content can be played and distributed. With
DRM-free content, some songs purchased from iTunes
now work directly on portable players other than
Apple's iPod, including Microsoft Corp.'s Zune.
Though piracy of digital music over the Internet
remains unabated even with the growth of legitimate
online retailers like iTunes, Apple's debut of
DRM-free songs could tempt some of its users to
share their purchased tracks with others online.
Technology blogs Ars Technica and The Unofficial
Apple Weblog were among the first to reveal that
personal data remained in the unrestricted iTunes
tracks. Their reports last week prompted speculation
that the data could be used to trace copies uploaded
to online file-sharing networks back to the people
who originally purchased the tracks, opening those
users to music industry copyright lawsuits.
The Recording Industry Association of America,
whose piracy lawsuits have ensnared organized
outfits as well as individual grandmothers and
youths, declined to comment. EMI Group PLC, the
major record label behind Apple's inaugural batch
of DRM-free songs, also declined to comment.
"DRM prevented us from playing the music
we have purchased on all of our devices. We asked
that this be removed and we got what we were looking
for," said Erica Sadun, a prolific technology
blogger on TUAW.com and author who conducted her
own tests of Apple's embedded identification tags.
"But I'm on the fence in terms of the privacy
issues," she said in an interview. "Consumers
should always know what they're getting into."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which also
analyzed the DRM-free song files on iTunes, said
it did not want to jump to any conclusions on
Apple's reasons for embedding the personal data.
Besides, users can remove their identifying data
from the files simply by burning the tracks to
a CD and then ripping the songs back to their
computer in the MP3 format, said Fred Von Lohmann,
an attorney with the San Francisco-based group.
Still, the group takes issue with the fact that
the personal information stored in these type
of song files is not encrypted. If someone were
to lose their iPod or have their laptop stolen,
for example, anyone using simple software tools
could access the personal data in the songs, von
Lohmann suggested.
"It just seems careless and unwise for somebody
like Apple to start planting this kind of personal
information without protection in the files,"
von Lohmann said. "It's not as bad as leaking
your credit card number or your Social Security
number, but it's still a pretty careless security
leak."
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch,
said he does not think Apple planned to use the
personal data as a secretive tracking tool.
"I think it's more of a way of retaining
a proof of purchase," he said, adding how
the identifying tags on copy-protected tracks
likely facilitated Apple's ability to approve
user upgrades to previous song purchases.
"'DRM-free' means I'm not restricted from
putting the songs on other devices anymore, but
it doesn't give users a license for piracy,"
he said.
Ultimately, whether it's intentional or just
an inadvertent deterrent for the illegal sharing
of digital tunes, Gartenberg predicts other major
online music retailers will similarly embed user
tags once they, too, start to introduce DRM-free
songs.
"I think everyone is going to have to do
this as some way for tracking purchases,"
he said.
Sadun agreed.
"It's a brilliant compromise," she
said, "between the forces of the music industry
which have been too heavy handed and the forces
of consumers who perhaps have pulled too far toward
information freedom."
Online music retailer eMusic.com, which sells
songs in the unrestricted MP3 format mostly from
independent labels, says it keeps of a record
of user purchases on its own computer servers
but doesn't place any kind of user data in any
of its tracks sold.
Apple should be more upfront about its purpose
for the embedded information, said David Pakman,
eMusic's chief executive. "You should tell
customers what you're doing with it before they
spend money with you," he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten, or redistributed.
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