Comments on: Don’t Be a Dumbass – DRM-free Tracks from Apple Should Not Be Shared on P2P Networks

By: Rich Chuckrey

Rich Chuckrey — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:31:14 +0000

People who buy a digital artifact (i.e. a track off iTunes) should have complete and transparent control of that artifact. Meaning — people should have unfettered access to all data contained within it — including personal information like that inside DRM technology.

DRM technology is an easy out for companies who want to control the market on their products.

By: Scott Jarkoff

Scott Jarkoff — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:34:09 +0000

That is one of the very situations that is problematic. Your name, so your music, regardless of whether you were complicit or not. We all know the RIAA is not concerned with real evidence, so this could be frightening for someone.

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:37:25 +0000

Its good that apple have been able to drop DRM, Steve has signified in the past how much he detests the problems with it and its nice to see progress on that front. While I admit that the watermarking of tunes is problematic, it can be seen as nessessary on one level and entirely stupid on another. One synerio that imediatley came to mind is what if you share a mp3 with someone, who then shares it via peer2peer. They would then be the perpentrator while you would be the one in court.

By: Scott Jarkoff

Scott Jarkoff — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 05:32:37 +0000

Thanks for the kind words Mitch. Glad you're enjoying TechMiso. Hopefully we can continue to provide interesting articles with a potentially unique spin.

You're right though – a lot of people have no idea this data even exists in the files and just end up sharing all these files which can lead back to them. Crazy, right?

By: Mitch

Mitch — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 04:43:32 +0000

"Social DRM" is definitely going to bite a lot of people. The iTunes move to free up the iTunes downloads could actually be a trap to a lot of people who aren't smart enough to read between the lines. There is nothing quite like sharing a Music folder via a P2P client and not realizing you're being tracked across the net every time someone downloads anything.

Good article Scott, I'm loving Tech Miso so far!

By: Scott Jarkoff

Scott Jarkoff — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:24:20 +0000

There certainly always seems to be a huge catch, right? Nothing is as open as we completely expect these days, especially when we're talking about the entertainment industry going digital.

By: YorickPeterse

YorickPeterse — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:12:59 +0000

Hm…Never use iTunes anyway, hate the way the program works.

By: Xypha

Xypha — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 13:04:45 +0000

I had a feeling that there had to be a catch in all of this freedom.