iTunes – Really Putting the I in iTunes

Privacy be damned! I thinks that’s what Steve Jobs must have said. Have you heard the latest? The new iTunes Plus has launched and it’s got two great big pieces of news attached to it that Apple is promoting the heck out of:

1. You get to buy iTunes tracks without any DRM embedded.
2. The quality of the tracks are now double what they used to be.

All this for only 30 cents more per track. Great news, I think…

Yes, that means the tracks have no digital lockbox protection and you can theoretically send your music to your Aunt Edna and she’ll be able to play it on her iPod without any trouble (that’s still not really legal, by the way). But that’s not what it’s really about. What the no-DRM is really about is that it allows you to play the tracks on any digital player you own, not just some Apple-approved ones.

And you can really, actually hear the difference in the music (even using the crappy little earbuds that come with iPods). I’ve tried, it’s true, they sound better…

But what Apple is not telling you is that (in order to make sure you don’t start becoming the Pirate Music King of your block — or maybe it’s more like, if you do become the Pirate Music King of your block, they’ll know) they are now doing is something that might scare you, especially if you work for the EFF or the ACLU. When you buy Apple iTunes Plus tracks, your name and email address are embedded into the song’s file.

Read that again: your name and email address are embedded into the song’s file. Talk about privacy invasion! Apple is not talking about it but the buzz amongst the digerati is getting big. A lot of people are squawking about it and should be. So be careful if you buy those songs, ’cause they’ll know if you start spreading the love of that song by giving it away to all your friends! But you wouldn’t do that, would you?

Technorati Tags:

ACLU, Apple, DRM, iTunes, privacy