Filed under: iTS, Terminal Tips, TUAW Tips
TUAW Tip: Don't Torrent That Song...
Sure, you can now download music from the iTunes store without DRM but that doesn't mean you should just willy nilly start sharing that music with your friends. For one thing, it's illegal. For another, your account information is embedded into that m4a music file. Don't believe me? Try this yourself.
1. Launch Terminal. You'll need to be comfortable at the command line to perform this check.
2. Navigate to one of your iTunes plus downloads. If you have a US iTunes account, you can download the iTunes plus "Ooh La" single of the week.
3. Use the UNIX "strings" command to look at the text in your data and grep to search for your name. e.g.
strings 01\ Ooh\ La.m4a | grep name
Alternatively, open all the strings in TextEdit:
strings 01\ Ooh\ La.m4a | open -f.
Bottom line: DRM-free doesn't mean that Apple suddenly supports piracy.
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Reader Comments (Page 5 of 5)
Jonathan said 4:02PM on 6-02-2007
Why is everyone worried about this? Just get out your hexeditor and change the name tag to 'Steve Jobs'. Simple.
(My point's really that this wouldn't stand up as evidence in any (fair) court, as you could just change the details to implicate someone you don't particularly like. But why have they done it otherwise?)
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Adrian said 6:41AM on 6-03-2007
"john smith" #75 wrote:
"....if tracking is employed in a process, that should be made explicitly clear at the outset, so consumers know what they're getting. And if you can't open it, you don't own it, so to hell with digital music. My friends get together and play actual instruments, which I think is the real wave of the future (old school, baby!) as everyone gets fed up with all this B$ just to hear some canned second-rate music."
Right on brother, old school indeed! Think about it, the origins and ever-changing role of music in human culture...
its roots predate language. the line blurs between music and language... think of singing/chattering birds, whales. what is music?
--expression, communication of ideas and feelings that our awkwardly evolved words cannot easily express. music is bio-metaphor.
so it became a a powerful tool, evolving alongside language and the rest of (de)civilization through the years. Music was used to strengthen unity in tribes, with drums and flutes and dancers around bonfires. to celebrate the joy of a fresh rain that will bring a good harvest. to raise spirits of the weary, bloodthirst of fighters.
heavy metal as therapeutic anger-release. some guitary singsongy folk-music to remind us of folks we respect, to feel at home and loved. some psy-trance to get in touch with our questions, joy, desires, fears. an hour-long ambient head-trip in the dark--it's like a lucid dream. some happy pop music, engineered for pleasure and fun.
a horror film building suspense with quiet strings and, then BKJELKAJLWAA! ULTRASHOCK your nervous system. a romantic soundtrack will mix tenderness and joy, to create an alluring sonic womb. oh mmm, vagina music...
30 seconds in an elevator are made a little more interesting.
10 seconds to several minutes of 8-bit stock music while you wait to talk to a corporate representative, a mockery of your patience.
I guess my point is that the tree of music has infinite branches, some of them growing in bad ways perhaps, but c'est la vie, it is an ancient tree, the roots and trunk are strong, and will keep producing branches and leaves forever, even if the sun, soil, and the sky change around it.
/stream-of-consciousness hijack off (verbal ejaculation complete)
to the topic at.. hand...
----
It's the end of the music industry as we know it. We are now experiencing the turbulence of evolution.
I've "stolen" about 120GB of music in the last few months via a private torrent sharing community. I live in the US. It has become so easy, like grazing on books in a library. If I hear good things about so and so, I download their debut album, or whatever I've been recommended, and crank it out of my speakers within minutes. if I *really* like what I hear, I buy a CD or vinyl (the FLAC of which I will then share online) and do my best to buy tickets to a show if it works out. I wish professional musicians would simply ask for donations on their website, like a virtual hat into which I can drop money. I am personally tired of superbands with their giant marketing and their contracts with corporate pigs like Warner, and their fucking endorsements of... deodorant. I find that scale of humanity inhuman.
so file-sharing. is this transfer of electronic signals wrong? a Crime? "intellectual property"? virtual goods? this is an exciting time, I look forward to seeing how humanity solves these problems, for it is part of the larger change.
I think the best music happens on the front porch, with only a handful of neighbors and housemates to hear it.
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Adrian said 10:09AM on 6-03-2007
and besides, musicians make waaay more off of live shows than CDs, from which the labels are the main profiters. file-sharing will only increase a band's fanbase, and thus their ticket sales ;)
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gclef said 5:29PM on 6-03-2007
DRM does this and more - stick to DRM-free music - it is less invasive and less opressive.
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Nick said 6:15PM on 6-03-2007
Reading some of these comments reminds me of when I was in college. They announced they might do drug testing and while all the straight kids said nothing, immediately all the pot-heads screamed that it was a violation of their privacy. If you're not planning on doing anything wrong, there's not that much to worry about, is there?
If I buy non-DRMd music, it'll go on my Zaurus or Palm, not to other people - why should it? I paid for it.
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peet said 8:37PM on 6-03-2007
This info has always been there, DRM or no.
Try the:
strings filename | grep name
trick on any of your iTMS purchased files, DRM or otherwise. You will find your name in all of them (at least I did).
I'm surprised no one has pointed this out yet. Of course, this doesn't mean that big brother is not watching, it's just not an attempt to track non-DRM files any more than DRM ones.
Personally, I'm not that freaked out by it....
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peet said 8:47PM on 6-03-2007
Me: "I'm surprised no one has pointed this out yet."
Ooops! People did point that out already. I just missed it. My Bad!
-p
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Michael said 3:57AM on 6-04-2007
1) DRM free does not mean that you can share the files as you like.
2) The tags were always in the iTunes songs. Press Apple-I or Ctrl-I and on the first page you'll see your name.
3) If you don't like these tags, there are lots of tools out there to remove the information or change it.
So stop whining! You wanted DRM free, you got it. What else do you want? Free music? Always something to complain about, eh?
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Jolix said 8:32PM on 6-08-2007
Easily hackable, don't even need to convert it from m4a.
Screenshot: http://clonesoftware.net/images/Picture_46.png
I modified 4 meta fields using a simple command line tool, let me know if you cannot find the 4th modified meta field, i will give you a tip.
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wincap said 9:01PM on 6-09-2007
My beef is that iTunes plus music can not be transferred to an iPod and then uploaded to another authorized computer. This makes it actually much harder to enjoy the music already legally purchased and owned. Is anyone else having this problem?
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Vernard Luxe said 1:15PM on 6-20-2007
I think it is a good thing that they (Apple) deceided to put this information in in plain text, I think not telling their users about this move was the worst thing they could do. If you are worried, and dont want to convert the m4a Files back and forth you can use a "simple" Perl script to blind your personal information.
The script can be found on my blog http://vernard-luxe.blogspot.com/2007/06/blind-apples-itunes-user-information.html
I think the information as such is not bad, you might want to know where you got your songs from, but it shall be openly communicated. Apple shouldnt hide them and display this information (at least) in their own software. But they dont, they hide it.
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