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The hidden data is there so Apple will know if you've done something illegal with the music it sold you.
 technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

T e c h n o f i l e
iTunes Store will tattle on you


June 10, 2007


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2007, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2007, The Post-Standard

   Apple has begun selling music at the iTunes Store that is free from all digital rights management (DRM). Right now there's only a limited selection, but I expect Apple to have thousands of DRM-free selections in a few months.
   It's about time. Apple's DRM forces customers to play their purchased tracks on an iPod or in the iTunes software itself. You can't play a DRM-encoded song you bought from the iTunes Store on, say, a Sony player, or on your Windows PC using WinAMP or any other non-iTunes software.
   But there's a dark side to Apple's decision to lead the music industry into a DRM-free world. Without informing customers who buy DRM-free recordings, Apple embeds personal information into each DRM-free file it sells. Each file contains the name and e-mail address of the person who bought the recording from the iTunes Store.
   This "meta data," the Geeky term for such hidden information, does not show up in the iTunes software when you look at a list of recordings, nor does it get in the way of playing the music. It remains in the file when the file is copied.
   Is this a big deal? It's not big. It's huge. Apple's not embedding your personal information in each file so Apple will know what you bought. Stores can easily keep track of all the items their customers buy -- they do that kind of thing already, in fact, if customers use credit cards. It's there so Apple will know what you've given away to someone else.
   In other words, it's there so Apple will know if you've done something illegal with the music it sold you.
   If you take the time to read Apple's iTunes Store customer agreement -- it's very long and full of scary phrases -- you'll see that Apple doesn't want you to buy something and then give it away to someone who didn't buy it. (It's OK to make copies for your personal use -- Apple makes that clear -- but it's definitely not OK to upload a copy of a file you bought to a file-sharing service.)
   If what you do "INFRINGES ON THE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS OF OTHERS," Apple's agreement states, in capital letters, this "MAY SUBJECT YOU TO CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PENALTIES, INCLUDING POSSIBLE MONETARY DAMAGES, FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT."
   Your name and e-mail address are also there so Apple can help the FBI, or the local police, or Interpol, or maybe even the Thought Police, chase you down and sue you.
   Am I making this up? Not according to Apple's customer agreement, which is shown to all iTunes Store customers before their first purchase and before they use every upgrade of the iTunes Store software. I quote:
   "You agree that Apple has the right, without liability to you, to disclose any Registration Data and/or Account information to law enforcement authorities, government officials, and/or a third party, as Apple believes is reasonably necessary or appropriate to enforce and/or verify compliance with any part of this Agreement (including but not limited to Apple's right to cooperate with any legal process relating to your use of the Service and/or Products, and/or a third party claim that your use of the Service and/or Products is unlawful and/or infringes such third party's rights)."
   I find this chilling. I object to this not because Apple is stepping on your rights -- c'mon, what right do you have to give someone else's intellectual property away? -- but because Apple isn't being straight with you. Notice that the statement above says Apple has the right to disclose "account information." It doesn't say Apple will hide your name and e-mail address in every piece of music you buy.
   And there is more. As I was researching this column, I learned that Apple has been embedding the buyer's name and e-mail address in ALL iTunes Store music, not just in its new DRM-free recordings.
   That means we've been snookered. We've been had, ever since the iTunes Store opened in 2003.
   Apple needs to apologize for not being up-front about personalizing the music we buy, and it needs to explain, in letters JUST AS SCARY as some of the text in its customer agreement, that it's able to track you down if you do something you shouldn't do.
   Anything less is unacceptable.