iTunes DRM-Free Tracks Now With 50% More DRM

The iTunes plot thickens.... I previously reported that iTunes Plus "DRM-Free" tracks came loaded with your email address and iTunes user ID. Additional information has arisen to clarify: The tracks don't include your email address but rather your billing name (though those are often the same). And according to at least one user, the tracks won't play at all if you strip the user information out of the file or insert a phony name into the tracks, as iTunes verifies ownership when the file is played.

Is it just me, or does that sound a whole lot like DRM? As independent researcher Joe Touch (who sent his findings via a popular email newsletter) puts it, "They're managing digital rights if they force the tag to remain in the song."

But wait, there's more! When the EFF compared two iTunes Plus copies of a Daft Punk song, it oddly found them to be of substantially different sizes: Specifically, one file was a full 360KB larger than the other. What's in that 360KB? The EFF hasn't been able to figure that out yet, but it speculates there's a large amount of user data (possibly regarding your music library) held in an encrypted format. Whatever it is, it ain't music.

And then there's this news: In the latest version of iTunes (7.2), Apple has made it far more difficult to do what's long been the tried and true method for stripping DRM from tracks: Namely, burning the music to a CD, then re-ripping it back into iTunes. Rather, if you do, you can no longer copy those tracks to an iPod, getting a message that they are "incompatible." It's unclear whether this is a bug or an intended "feature" of Apple's new direction. I'm hoping for a bug and that it'll be fixed soon. Read the link for full details and updates as they happen.

Apple, let's get it together, OK? Remember that open letter, Steve? All this DRM nonsense is making it really hard to love your products. Remember, some of us just want to listen to our music without Big Brother listening in.