I’m surprised that there wasn’t a lot of outrage about the fact that the new DRM-free files on iTunes actually include your iTunes account information in the meta-data. Put that fave song up online and you’ll be hearing from someone…but who? CNet UK has the story but even they gloss over it:
Be warned: your account information is stored in every file
Although iTunes Plus files feature no copy protection, files downloaded still contain the email address you have registered with iTunes. So although files can physically be shared with, and played by, friends and family, any of your purchases that end up on file-sharing networks, for example, can be traced back to you.
If you’re interested in an easy way to check your own files, find an iTunes Plus file on your computer. Then choose to open it with a text editor (Windows Notepad works fine). It’ll take a while to open and will appear to be full of nonsense text, but if you choose the ‘Find’ option and type in the email address you have registered with the iTunes Store, you’ll find that your DRM-free music is not personal information-free.
I wonder if it’s possible to strip this data out. Seems like it would be pretty simple to write an action script program to ask for your email address, then have it just do a batch search and replace inside each file, replacing it with dummy text.
However, that doesn’t mean that the meta-data is completely gone, as that isn’t my forte, I can’t speak to it, but if just changing the type in text-edit does it, I’m sure someone will come up with a solution quickly.
However, it is a bummer. we just need to keep on taking baby steps.
January 14th, 2009 at 11:48 am[...] 2. The relieved sighs of DRM-hating music pirates everywhere were cut short when someone discovered that the now 100% DRM-free iTunes tracks are still host to potentially incriminating personal information. [...]
January 24th, 2009 at 8:35 am