The library metaphor is apt. The fact that a vast majority of digital media shared online is comprised of works which are out of print attests to the need for a digital repository of our cultural wealth, freely accessible to all. It is a simple matter of education-- books, music and films are all educational materials.

To the reader who commented that it's a choice between old-style restrictive DRM and new-style digital watermarking, I say that there will always be a third way out: Unrestricted data in open formats that doesn't contain watermarks or any other personally identifiable information. It's a fact of life that this type of data will always exist and so I'm forever in awe at the great lengths mega-corporations go to in their quest for a solution to an unsolvable problem.

Jonah Dempcy, Seattle, WA

I have read a lot of comments about how people dont care about the hidden data and if you are not file sharing, then you have nothing to worry about. I disagree.

So I fill up my ipod (or any mp3 player now with the itunes un-drmed music) with these watermarked files. I go out somehwere and my mp3 player is stolen. Uh oh....not only does the thief have my mp3 player, they have all of my personal data, too.

What if you leave your mp3 player at the gym, will the person who finds it be honest enough to not steal your files and your personal information?

With identity theft and credit card fraud on the rise, I would think that people would be more concerned about this. The music industry and Apple in particular needs to devise a way to allow for Fair Use and prevent piracy without compromising the privacy of my personal information.

J drummond, Manchester,

To all of you who say file sharing is stealing, I have one question to ask: would you burn down your local library? If one can borrow a book and lend it to someone else that did not "buy" the intellectual license on the book to experience the author's artistry and it is not considered stealing, how is it not the same reasoning if I borrow a recording and listen to it or if I lend someone a cassette of something I bought? If libraries allow for piracy, why allow them to exist. The technology between book lending, cassette and file sharing may be different, but the end use in sharing is the same. I do not know about you, but many cassettes and MP3's that were lent to me inspired me to go out and buy the music. If said music was actually on the radio rather than the same 50 songs in a given month, perhaps the record company would see their fortunes rise. Right now with the way they are treating both their artists and their livelihood, the industry will go the way of the dodo

Santa, North Pole, NJ, USA

I read a very good comment on another website on this subject which I shall misquote here.
Old style DRM assumes the worst of the consumer and restricts the use of the songs they aquire.
The new style doesn not restrict the user and instead trusts them to only put the music they buy to good use, the digital watermarks enable tracking of the few people who do use the files illegally.
I know which methos I prefer.

Jordan, York, UK

So then Time Life, Newsweek, GQ, The Readers Digest... they are all a privacy risk because they all have my name and address on them.

Is anyone really surprised that there would be personal identifiable information on DRM free tracks? Seriously, this is a shock?

Mike Jovanovic, Chicago, IL

Refering to the comment regarding the price of 79p qualifying a mediocre quality: a chart CD can be bought online for less than £8. Assuming an minimum of 10songs the implied CD-song price is <80p. Given the price, not to mention the playback restrictions the files should be offered in a choice of formats (including lossless) and starting at least at 190k...

Nikos, London,

Apple ITunes is for people who are illeterate getting taken advantage by a capilatlistic monopoly = apple! Just download MP3s, so you can hear it everywhere...

charlie, la, ca

My mum used to write my name in my gym kit... didn't bother me then and why should it bother me now that something I own has my name on it? I'm not going to pirate them off to someone else anyway, so what? Apple should do their bit to appease the record companies concerns for piracy and digital rights, even if it has now relaxed the rules a bit in favour of the customers.
Also, To the guy that said that he never new that iTunes songs weren't all that great quality - MP3 or AAC never is... They are all compressed. CD audio has a bit rate of 1411 kbps and an iTunes track is 128kbps or 256 for the newer ones.. Whaddaya expect for 79p?

Steve Castle, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan

The scariest thing about this is that there i no way that any normal person would ever know about this. Next week this will be old news on iTunes will continue on exactly as it has. Should business be held accountable for the information they decide to collect? http://christonium.com goes out of their way to ensure user privacy and security. Shouldn't a large company like Apple have the same values? Maybe personal rights aren't rights at all if they sacrifice the companies bottom line.

James Gills, Corvallis, Oregon

This is really no big deal, my impression is that this data is stored in the tags in the file, anyone with a tool to edit these can remove them and such tools are not hard to find.

Anyhow, one should not be sharing music that one bought online, doing so is copyright infringement, and, as long as these files do not make it onto file sharing networks, and they should not make it on to file sharing networks, then you have nothing to worry about.

It is good the DRM is gone, though, if you want to sick it on something other than an iPod, you can just transcode it to a format that your media player will accept now.

Thomas Howard, Wellington, New Zealand

Instead of complaining about Apple and the big all those big evil companies start looking at all those low-lifes that steal the same music that you purchase with your hard earned money. Yes, if you pirate music you are scum!!

If kids have to be fined $5000 to stop sharing music "illegally" then so be it. Maybe this way they can understand that stealing is "against the law".

C, Dallas, TX

Music Man, LA, California mentioned that credit card information is stored in the mp4 files. However, the only time I've ever "bought" anything via the Itunes store is from a gift card or free song promotional code. So what gets stored then? Does the person's credit card information that bought me the gift card get embedded? Just curious..

Jess, Philly,

How can iTunes get away with calling their 256 kbps downloads true"CD quailty"? That is still 4x less than most lossless files. MusicGiants.com actually delivers lossless music downloads (up to 1100kbps) for the same price as iTunes mediocre files. Is Apple trying to rip me off?

Katherine, San Francisco, CA

Perhaps people would feel more guilty about sharing music online if the price of tracks fell to reflect the record companies savings in pressing plants, packaging, cover printing, distribution, transport, staffing, shop rent and salaries produced by the download revolution. It might also help if British consumers did not have to pay more than consumers in the rest of Europe (common market anyone?) This is another example of rip-off Britain where consumers are taken for a ride by overpaid and under-talented recording artists and their greedy record labels. I wouldn't pay a pound a track from iTunes to load onto a player that scratches instantly and is only designed to last for a year before the battery fails. Still, ' a fool and his money are easily parted.'

Dan, Oxford, England

For those who don't know, radio stations pay licensing fees in order to broadcast music. The aren't allowed to do it for free.

Becky, Houston, TX

You can open the *.mp4 file with notepad (it will take a while) and see the information right there at the top. If you change it, it will not play in the ipod or itunes.
-Richard

Richard, Philadelphia, USA

Well hell, since there's no danger why don't we put some sensitive info from Apple or Steve Jobs in there? Shouldn't be a problem since that info's "already out there" right?

Apart from that, do bear in mind that when you give any large entity an inch they will want to take a few more yards. This is true for both government and business. At least a business will have limits because it doesn't want to offend consumers though. People are stunned that their name, email, etc., is being embedded in files. In the US where identity theft is so big of a deal and everyone is so paranoid to even list the city they are from on forums like this, in a business sense it doesn't seem like a very smart move. I agree that this information isn't exactly that sensitive. But 1) It opens doors to other stuff (remember Sony's rootkit in their CDs?), and 2) Consumer ignorance can really hurt you. Whether something is true or not is irrelevant when feelings are involved.

Shaun, Sedalia, MO,

Gee, guys... my name and often my email address is found in many of the software applications that I have installed on my computer... What's different? It hasn't been hidden. Highlight the iTunes song, click "Get Info" on Macs, click "Properties" on Windows, and there is the so-called "hidden" information. It's been there since Apple instituted iTunes sales.

This is merely FUD in anticipation of the WWDC announcements in a couple of weeks and the release of the iPhone on June 29th.

Andrew Smith, Stockton, CA

I don't see why people are complaining, if you bought a cd or an LP (remember those) with your name and address on it would you see it as a problem? I think not. Just don't buy anything from Apple if it's a problem, I don't. If you have a decent hi-fi even CD only sounds so-so anyway, so I don't see why you would want to degrade it any further unless on the move.

Keith , Copenhagen, Denmark

How can you possibly equate lending a book to someone with posting music on a website for people to help themselves to!!!? Try this then run off a couple of thousend copies of your favourite book and set up a website were anyone can request a copy for free. .... see how long you can do that for.

Steve , Sunshine Coast, Australia

There are so many people saying "What's the big issue?"

How about for the majority of people out there who are not too technologically inclined and have wireless networks? It's surprising just how many people don't secure their wireless connections and/or don't know which files they are sharing. If a hacker downloads their iTunes music and puts it on a P2P network in the AAC format - who will be accountable?

That's the big issue. If we let governments and companies erode our privacy, our freedom erodes too. I have nothing to hide, but it doesn't mean I want everyone to know my business.

Phil, London,

Oh my god, they embedded my e mail addy....ooooppppps, seems it's required to post this comment as well. If you're all that concerned do the following

go to yahoo mail, hotmail, g mail..or any of the other's that exist
open an account and use it

Jon, SB, Ca

"Apple's iTunes Plus service, launched this week, offers DRM-free music of a higher quality than standard iTunes tracks for 99p a song – compared with 79p for a standard track."
News to me. Didn't realize the hundred's I've spent to date is substandard. I won't buy anything else from Apple.

Greg L, vancouver, BC

Once again, the producers of multimedia punish legitimate buyers in their mad frenzy to stop the conflagration brought on by the very technology they helped spawn. This stunt by Apple is beyond the pale.

The purveyors of media and various digitized services try to breed a culture that thinks it cannot survive without continued bombardment of electromagnetic and sonic waves, and then they nefariously exploit their patrons by charting and categorizing every private detail they can get their greedy hands on, and using that info in ways no sane person would knowingly agree to.

As for the people that are "plugged in" every waking hour: I am glad I myself can hugely enjoy taking a printed book off the shelf and getting quietly absorbed for hours. You don't need all this electronic drivel -- cell phones, iPods, instant messaging, etc., etc., ad nauseum -- tagging along with you 24 hours a day. It's enough to rot your brains, to cloud your minds, and who knows what else.

Biff, Cleveland, OH

Everyone should get the book "I.T. Wars: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium." The author talks about all kinds of liabilities, and solutions and protections in the face of rapid technical change.

KanyeS, Baltimore, MD

Of course they are! How else are they going to honor their license with the record companies, which limits the number of times a purchaser can copy it?

Beeper, Tacoma, WA

It's only a big deal if you illegally share your music. If it's sitting on your computer, it's not big deal.

M, Hershey,

Um...this looks like nothing more than attaching a "receipt of purchase" to a item or song instead of a big-brother tracking scheme for piracy (which purpose it also likely serves, so stop committing piracy then). A grocery store would also give me a paper receipt of purchase if I bought some produce and paid cash. I would expect other music services do the same with WMA (Zune Marketplace or PlaysForSure) or even pre-populating the ID3 tags of a standard MP3. You get what you pay for, and you can always throw away a receipt.

Does iTunes or Zune Marketplace encode the same user information that they do on purchase of an album from THEIR storefronts (thus also attaching YOUR license to play the song)....as say the same physical CD purchased with cash from the local store, ripped with iTunes or Zune to an 'unprotected' format?

Answer me that one. Where's the news here?

Jay, Tacoma, WA

You wouldn't know this from talking to Steve Jobs, but I scratch my balls almost nonstop. I have some kind of skin condition, and my balls get all scaly and itchey and red. Man they hurt. Anyway, I actually apply baby oil to my balls, and they feel sooo much better. It does soil my pants, so my crotch and anus look wet and stained through my pants, but the itchy ball thing definitely goes away.

Chris Reinke, St. Louis, MO

Good thing I'm an engineer by trade,and encode my own stuff.Sounds better,at the same bitrate,too.

Htos1, Fernandina, USA/Fl.

Downlaoding is nothing different that cassette tape sharing in the 70's and 80's. It is not stealing to share your music any more than it is stealing to lend someone your book or cassette and they experience it. The music industry needs to get over itself, stop screwing over artists, and actually signing actual musicians and producers rather than people who just look good on the tele and CD sleeve. Oh, and good song writing would help. If the record company wanted a windfall in profits and stop piracy here's a clue: 1) make each song a $.25 download with the fees split 33% each between artist, record company, & distributor, 2) rather than the record company setting prices at $18.99, slash the price to $5.00 retail and split the $2.50 whole sale price between the artist and record company rather than the artist being lucky to make $.10 on each CD. Who is robbing the artst? The Record Industry of course!!!

Santa, North Pole, NJ, USA

I read a book. I let someone else read it. The author gets only a royalty on my initial purchase. Why is the music deemed "intellectual property" and protected in perpetuity? When the music "airs" it should be deemed "public" and sharing should be allowed by individuals. The musicians should have to PERFORM live concerts to collect additional monies associated with their "performances" and that is how they should have to make a living...by actually WORKING for their monies, not by living off the perpetual royalties. If radio stations play music, they should pay royalties since the stations are making money off the process, otherwise, sharing should be allowed by free people that want to pass the music along. If the music is so good, then the concert venues will be packed to see the artist live. The musicians are lazy, pompous and self-serving if they don't want to WORK for the subsequent monies associated with their creativity via live concerts.
PK, Pittsburgh, PA

P Klemash, Pittsburgh,

Am I missing something? If I buy a song from iTunes, I immediately dub it to a wav file. Play it once and record it, it's yours forever. No problem, no additional data

tabloidbob, Oxnard, cA

I think this must be the EFF article The Times refers to David Adams...

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005282.php

BOB, Merfa,

In his comment, Adams cites Sadun - apparently to suggest that the story is nonsense... but this is what Sadam says: "After removing all atomic meta information from my iTunes plus purchases, the music files still retain distinguishable trace differences that could be used to track the data if loaded illegally to peer-to-peer networks."

The Times is just letting people know what's in iTunes tracks. I reckon that most of the people who read the Times don't read Sadun.... Where's the harm in spreading that information? Le peopel make up their own minds. I don't see Adams's point - anybody else?

BOB, Merfa,

Hey folks, you don't "OWN" the music. You merely have a license to it to use it as deemed by your agreement that you enter into at the time of purchase. You have no right to freely share this music as you do not own the copyright. It was this way with CDs, tapes and LPs. Nothing new here.

And artists are going to keep doing their art without pay? What is this? Some kind of sadism? How about I ask you to come out and wash my car each day for free just because you love cars? Sound good? D, from LA, I'm talking to you.

Elton, Seattle, USA

This is news!? hahaha. It's not even close to an invasion of privacy, so don't make an excuse for your laziness on not reading all terms and agreement stuff before clicking "I Agree." I couldn't care less because unless you give your music away, only you and Apple have the information - information you gave them in the first place. What did you think they were going to do, delete it after you gave it to them?

Joe, Berre, MA

Mike they didnt exactly announce it in a press release did they? Do you read warnings on cups of coffee before you drink? As long as they try to suck my personal information out of me, I will continue to sanitize and share what I paid for and own.

Writing and music and other arts are passions before they are commercial commodities. True artistes will still perform, and writers will still right, as long as there is passion in the world. And they will continue to do so long after Apple is a fading memory, like vinyl records

D, LA,

sharing music is no different than listening to the radio. We don't pay to listen to the radio, and personal recordings are free and legal. The industry has created their own quagmire in their greed, now they pay the price. Idiots paying $1 per song are insane.

Brett, NY, NY

Look. Why don't people just buy the CD and download it. No personal info, nothing

LittleK, Mancester, England

What about some naughty hacker embedding YOUR details in a track? and then sharing it.. How to prove that you did not? How many shared tracks will be shared by W gates and S jobs, according to the info in the tracks?

Elwin parsley, london , UK

they're not hiding it because they tell you it's there. learn how to read the important information before you download.

AND STOP STEALING MUSIC

Mike, SFO, CA

Amazon.com will soon offer music downloads
and they will be MP3's.

Ra, The Florida Keys,

one day people are going to stop writing music, books, and movies for you thievers and then you'll have to listen to the local street corner players. your information wouldn't be a challenge if the morons who steal it would keep it to themselves.

Mike, San Francisoc, CA

lol, GoMusic, Allofmp3, MP3Sugar.........any other Russian site is illegal to use in the US. That's why the US government has forced credit card companies to stop accepting charges from accepting charges from AllofMp3 and why you have to go through Dutch paypal to pay GoMusic.

Steve, New York, New York

I purchased the biggest, baddest video iPod for my daughter and it was promptly stolen.

Now I know that each time you connect to iTunes, they record your IP address and I always had a sneaking suspicion they were embedding and recording additional information.

Do ya think Apple would assist me in tracking down the thief? No.

They lied right through their little Apple fangs and said it was impossible to track someone through their IP address.

Grafxgal, Shytown, USA/IL

People still order from I Tunes? I have been using the Russian GoMusic (19cents a song) for some time now. I get a big kick out of the News that Beatle tracks will soon be available on iTunes. Been there and done that on GoMusic. There is also the Russian MP3Sugar. Already got all of the Beatle songs, and a few hundred others that I wanted from the Russkies.. The Visa and Mastercard charges are processed thru the Dutch version of PayPal, so I do not believe my credit card data is included in the GoMusic tracks. Apple is too obnoxious to deal with a credit card processor, so everyone gets what they deserve by dealing with these clowns. 99 cents a song...what a ripoff. Wake up, music fans...and do not share.

jay byrd, Las Vegas, Nevada

The article fails to mention that the hidden cyphered data is your credit card information. Read the terms and conditions of your license agreement with iTunes and stop complaining. You own the ipod, but Apple owns you.

Music Man, LA, California

Aw hell, use a Hex editor and edit your name out and leave blank spaces in it's place. Save. Problem solved.

K, k, k

Big brothers big club is now a big APPLE.

aLittleApple, AppleTown, AppleState

I just opened a purchased iTunes file with MS Word, and selected "Recover text from any file." Sure enough, my name is right at the top in plain English, and a search found my email address a few pages down. It's not even encrypted or hidden.

Ben, Yakima, Washington

It's not a privacy issue if you don't share the tracks with other people, now isit?

And geeez, just convert them to MP3 if you feel you must pirate them, your information will be gone.

Justin, Los Angeles, CA

See Chris Breen's article on Macworld / Playlist

What has escaped the attention of some is that Apple has always embedded this information in media purchased from the iTunes Store.

http://playlistmag.com/weblogs/ipodblog/2007/06/ituneswatermark/index.php

The implications? In the past this wasn't a big deal because, by default, you could play purchased media only on those computers authorized for that purpose. That's changed now that some purchased iTunes media is no longer protected. Obviously, it would be profoundly stupid to share any media purchased from the iTunes Store on a peer-to-peer network. Its source could be easily traced. A less obvious implication is that you may want to keep a closer eye on your media. Suppose you pass along one of these DRM-free tracks to your buddy and she posts it on a peer-to-peer network?

Colin Crawford, San Francisco, CA

Been there since day 1, long before the non-DRM stuff ever existed.

Furthermore, it isn't hidden. It is in standard fields -- atoms -- within the AAC data stream. Any decent AAC stream inspector will show them to you.

So, exactly, what the hell is the fuss?

Bob, Townsville, USA

They never give up, do they?

Forrest Higgs, Pacific Grove, California

I never would and haven't bought one i-Tune

mole, hbg, pa

In the U.S.A. it would be called entrapment. That is very sneaky. I don't think that without a disclaimer,legal actions resulting from sharing would face a uphill battle

RC, Angels camp, USA

This is old news. I knew this a while ago when I tried to download another user's song and his email address popped up asking for a password. Wierd.

Matt, Honolulu, HI

Aren't tracks purchased from itunes protected anyway, with your name/email/password? A friend *tried* to share a song with me once, and I wasn't able to play it.

MJ, Brooklyn, USA

"Bye-bye to itunes"

Please, are you serious? This is invasion of privacy? If you are not doing anything wrong (P2P sharing) with the tracks then what the worry? And please save the, "what if a hacker gets my info?" If you have bought a track off itunes than i am sure you have purchased something off ebay or some other e-commerce site. Your data is "out-there", sorry to inform you. What did you expect? iTunes needs to tag tracks to determine how to offer you other songs you may like and the such. Ever notice how Apple suggests other artists and tracks when you are shopping? Well how do you think they do that? Magic?

Save the theatrics and go about your business. if it is bye-bye itunes for you than go find another company that offers a similar service with the equal content as Apple. Oh, what was that? You can't? Exactly. So your account is tied to a track, get a life. You have more to worry about.

Esj, nashua, NH

ok the big fuss is that they're hiding information from us that has our information on it. It doesn't matter if it's only a name and e-mail, that could just be the start. once you give them a little they want more. Remember all small things turn into big things and this could just as easily happen.

Alex, Plainfield,

If you click "Properties" for any file I bought on iTunes my info is there. It has been there since day 1....Whats the big deal? Will I have to report my music "stolen" so I am not liable if its found on a sharing service..No...because nobody shares AAC files anyway...the converted mp3's have no personal data attached.....

Next, Bulls Gap, TN

Well, I guess the fuss is that they've kept quiet about it. If they're embedding my name in it, I want to know about it. If they tell me upfront, then it's fine. It's all this secrecy that bugs me...2

MU, Goteborg, Sweden

Dave Allen of Glasgow.

In what sense is your privacy invaded? itunes have imbedded your name and email adress in music you have purchased from them.

You supplied the information willingly and itunes sent it back to you. As long as you dont go sending those music tracks out into the internet that information will never be seen by anyone else.

I dont see what the fuss is about.

Jordan, York, UK

This will have no ewffect whatsoever upon iTunes usage.

The fact is the only people who have to worry are those who pirate or give away the music to others for free on file sharing networks. At the end of the day such actions are criminal and should be dealt with as such. So what is the fuss all about???

Gareth Williams, Cardiff, UK

Yup, final straw for itunes here. They can't have it both ways.

PJ, Stavanger,

I have no problem with this data being embedded in my tracks. I also wouldn't care if they turned out to be 'watermarking' songs.

The only legitimate objection to iTunes DRM was (and is) that it limited your freedom to use music which you had bought legally in a variety of different devices.

Maybe they should have put it in the T&Cs, though...

John Allen, Oxford, UK

Bye-bye to itunes.

I don't take kindly to invasion of privacy. I suspect millions others don't either

Dave Allen, Glasgow,