DRM Free Music from iTunes hides account info

Martin Brinkmann
May 31, 2007
Updated • Jun 25, 2013
Music and Video
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Many users were quite happy when Apple announced that they would be selling drm free music on its iTunes online store. DRM free means that customers would finally have no issues playing the music they purchased in any device that they owned, including music players on the computer, mp3 players, the car or gaming systems.

The price of DRM free songs is higher than that for music with DRM. I expected an outcry when Apple announced this but this somehow never happened.

The possibility to download drm free music is now available on iTunes and several websites have already examined the new DRM-free music files.

As Arstechica puts it: "We started examining the files this morning and noticed our names and e-mail addresses in the files". This information is however stored in all songs that are downloaded from the iTunes store, not only in drm free songs.

While it has not been a real concern before it could become one now.While users won't probably add DRM-free music that they have purchased freely to P2P folders or offer them on websites, it is likely that this may happen occasionally nevertheless.

Users who purchase songs may share them with friends or family members which is when they lose control over the file's distribution. The main issue here is that the original purchaser's name and email is listed in the music file so that anyone can trace back the file to the account.

If such a song is distributed via P2P, it would be easy enough for rights holders to identify the originating party. While it is unlikely that many users will share songs they have purchased on their own, a single successful hack of a system, the purchase of a used computer or hard drive, or the sending of the song to a close friend, may be enough to get you into serious trouble.

Will you be responsible if millions of users share songs with your name in them?

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Comments

  1. Anonymous said on August 1, 2010 at 12:43 pm
    Reply

    Why not make use of the mplayer.conf?

  2. Mike J said on August 1, 2010 at 2:58 pm
    Reply

    Huh, I have never even seen this “font cache” pane; videos play at once for me, using VLC & XP SP3.

    1. Martin said on August 1, 2010 at 3:39 pm
      Reply

      Mike, in theory this should have only been displayed once to you, at the very first video that you played with VLC. The time this window is displayed depends largely on the number of fonts in your font directory.

      1. Mike J said on August 2, 2010 at 2:30 pm
        Reply

        huh, I lucked out for a change?? Amazing!!
        Apparently VLC keeps this info through version updates, but I didn’t see this message after a fresh OS install about 8 weeks ago, & a new VLC.

  3. myo said on August 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm
    Reply

    yes, yes, i have the same problem. sometimes, VLC crashes when it is playing .mov file.

  4. Kishore said on August 13, 2010 at 2:55 pm
    Reply

    Error:
    Buidling font Cache pop-up

    Solution:

    Open VLC player.

    On Menu Bar:

    Tools
    Preferences

    (at bottom – left side)
    Show settings — ALL

    Open: Video
    Click: Subtitles/OSD (This is now highlited, not opened)
    Text rendering module – change this to “Dummy font renderer function”

    Save
    Exit

    Re-open – done.
    Progam will no longer look outside self for fonts

    Source – WorthyTricks.co.cc

    1. Martin said on August 13, 2010 at 3:10 pm
      Reply

      Great tip, thanks a lot Kishore.

  5. javier said on August 14, 2010 at 1:50 pm
    Reply

    @Kishore, I’ll try your tips, but does this mean it will no longer show subtitles either?
    I do use subtitles, but the fontcache dialog box pops up (almost) everytime I play a file.

    Could this be related to the fonts I have installed? Or if I add/remove fonts to my system?

    I’ll try to do a fresh install also, if your tips does no work. I’ll post back here later…

    /thanks
    /j

  6. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:38 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,

  7. Kishore said on August 15, 2010 at 12:39 pm
    Reply

    @ Javier, The trick i posted will show up subtitles too. If not,Dont worry, VLC is currently sorting out this issue and the next version will be out soon.

    No probs @ Martin !! Its my pleasure

  8. Ted said on October 22, 2010 at 3:57 am
    Reply

    Try running LC with administrator privileges. That seemed to fix it for me

  9. Evan said on December 8, 2013 at 1:48 am
    Reply

    I am using SMplayer 0.8.6 (64-bit) (Portable Edition) on Windows 7 x64. Even with the -nofontconfig parameter in place SMplayer still scans the fonts. Also, I have enabled normal subtitles and it is still scanning fonts before playing a video. Also, it does this every time the player opens a video after a system restart (only the fist video played).

  10. Mike Williams said on September 6, 2023 at 1:26 pm
    Reply

    Does that mean that only instrumental versions of songs will be available for non-paying users?

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