The "catch" regarding DRM-free iTunes...

[CharlieChomper]

For those who haven't heard, Apple has begun and plans on more widely implementing the removal of DRM from iTunes.

However, it was recently found that as a "compromise" to the removal of DRM, Apple decided to include personal information belonging to the purchaser in the actual iTunes file in an effort to supposedly curb or stop people from sharing or downloading them as well as to catch or make it much easier to catch anyone caught posting or sharing them anywhere.

It is also quite simple for almost anyone to obtain said information from the file without much effort involved on the part of the person looking for it (removing that information, however, appears to result in making the file completely useless given how things have been handled).

[Felicity]

CC, please excuse my ignorance, but what does "DRM-Free "mean? Or rather "DRM"?

Felicity

[CharlieChomper]

DRM=Digital Rights Management.

It's difficult to fully describe what it is exactly without also getting into the controversy surrounding it or why it regarded that way.

[Whitnerd]

Personal information in the files. Not like I've been sharing my iTunes files or anything, but that doesn't sound good at all. I'm not entirely sure how that's any better than DRM (perhaps that's why you put "compromise" in quotation marks ), but I don't really know enough about it to judge much.

[CharlieChomper]

The quotation marks are there for the reason you had mentioned, Whitney.

As to DRM, again, it's very difficult for me to really describe what it is without also going into why it is so controversial. For those familiar with the SecuROM or paysite debates within the community and the controversies surrounding them, they're like raindrops compared to the massive storm of controversy surrounding DRM throughout just the tech/techie communities as well as amongst privacy-rights advocates.

Unfortunately, this also makes it difficult for me to find anything just written about it that describes it in "laymen's terms" to share since the sources are either industry sources written by companies promoting its use or people on the other side of this issue who are fiercely opposed to its very existence--no sense of neutrality or even an explanation that isn't in some way biased.

I suppose at its heart, you could say it was supposed to be a very strict copy protection ideology. However, it is the implementation of it and the effects of it that are part of what make it so controversial.

In terms of the personal information and how easy it is to find it, if you know how to use the search/find feature in even a web browser or text editor, you shouldn't have too much trouble in locating it within the file.