Anger over DRM-free iTunes tracks

The launch of music tracks free of digital locks on iTunes has been overshadowed by the discovery that they contain data about who bought them.

Some fear this data could be used to identify the owner of the tracks if they turn up on file-sharing sites. The tracks from record company EMI cost more and are of a better quality than standard iTunes songs.

Apple has yet to comment on what it plans to do with the information embedded in the music files.

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wah jobs' ... kya ika khela hai .... all those who called gates' a person who did not play fair ... jobs' has taken the bar a little higher

iMav said:
wah jobs' ... kya ika khela hai .... all those who called gates' a person who did not play fair ... jobs' has taken the bar a little higher

Completely true , also why should ppl paying for DRM-Enabled tracks get lesser quality tracks?

you're paying for the song , you have every right to get it in the highest quality possible !

We really cannot conclude that it is being used for tracking.. lets wait n watch what Apple has to say. It could be for internal record etc..

Isnt this something like tracking a suspected criminal who left a xerox copy of his driver's license @ the spot of crime. I mean, what if a person's iPod loaded with such songs gets stolen and the thief releases music on net, will they catch the buyer in the first place! Great, now with FIR of stolen iPod, people will have to logde FIR of stolen audio files too. & Wat if the iPod was not stolen in the first place, what if say a vengeful or ignorant wife publishes husband's music over P2P!!!

kumarmohit said:
Great, now with FIR of stolen iPod, people will have to logde FIR of stolen audio files too.

Apple did not say that the information is being used for putting people in jail.

In the case of the stolen iPod, it is actually helpful. If the lost iPod is turned in at some police station, it can be traced back to the original owner. I know, rare chance - but still.

This is not an invasion of privacy at all. Songs don’t reveal any personal information. Giving those songs to others and having them hack out the data reveals your personal information. Keep your songs to yourself!

I am sick and tired of people who think they should be able to freely give purchased content away to others. Apple and EMI have gone out on a big limb and an even larger experiment. If sales plummet, guess what? The RIAA will be in SEE! PIRACY! mode and we’ll all go back to the dark ages.

I believe in privacy, I really do. However, Apple embedded your personal information in content that only you should have is no different than them saving your email address in a Mail application preferences.

Source

Remember this:
"Apple and EMI have gone out on a big limb and an even larger experiment. If sales plummet, guess what? The RIAA will be in SEE! PIRACY! mode and we’ll all go back to the dark ages."

It wasn't an easy job to get this done. The least people could do is congratulate Steve Jobs for taking the initiative to try and rid the world from the shackles of DRM.

^^^

Apple did not say that the information is being used for putting people in jail.

Cool it Bro, The report said that some people fear that it could be used, no one said apple is using it. But wat I do not understand is why should some one in India be bothered by anything happening in iTMS considering that store is neither available in India nor Jobs seems to be interested in bringing it to the orient in near future.

jobs knows that people in India use there brain before spending money. Thats why he is not bring iTMS here cos he knows, to succed he needs to sale full songs at Rs 10/song which is impossible.

kumarmohit said:
But wat I do not understand is why should some one in India be bothered by anything happening in iTMS considering that store is neither available in India nor Jobs seems to be interested in bringing it to the orient in near future.

Yes! very true. Couldnt be more right. Its B##S if one says India isnt a mature market for Apple.Infact when there wasnt a proper channel in India to buy ipod there was a grey market Boom for iPods here.Check this news no less than from www.wired.com And here is the
Link

Last quarter Apple sold more than 8 million iPods and 1.3 million computers. Industry estimates by Daily News & Analysis suggest that the gray market makes up between 60 percent and 90 percent of sales in India.

Even though demand for iPods is as great in India as anywhere else in the world, Apple seems to have cold feet about expanding its presence in the country. In May, Apple closed down its only call center in Bangalore and halted plans to hire 3,000 new employees by 2007. Though Apple said only that it had "re-evaluated" its plans in India, it appears that high taxes, a strong gray market and a thriving environment for Windows systems have given the company pause.

India is a huge market and one can't surmise why there is no Apple Store in India. Come on..How many countries can boast of a largest Films making industry and songs production.
Its about high time that Apple starts minding its steps for India

Yashraj films website sells online music at 20Rs/song protected WMA (Read DRM poisoned), and the greater thing is is that its locked to one single PC, just the one you purchased on and the greatest thing is that I never heard of anyone purchasing music from there, and oh did I mention that the collection is seriously limited. I prefer watching content on rajshri.com myself, they provide streaming content free to watch and collection is better than yashraj website any day.

freshseasons said:
Yes! very true. Couldnt be more right. Its B##S if one says India isnt a mature market for Apple.Infact when there wasnt a proper channel in India to buy ipod there was a grey market Boom for iPods here.Check this news no less than from www.wired.com And here is the
Link

India is a huge market and one can't surmise why there is no Apple Store in India. Come on..How many countries can boast of a largest Films making industry and songs production.
Its about high time that Apple starts minding its steps for India

Though I would, of course, love to see an Apple Store in India, I am quite surprised that you think there really is a market for Apple products in India. Discussions on this forum itself are a clear example of why Apple can never succeed in India. Indians do not set benchmarks in quality, they follow benchmarks in price. In that thread about which company makes the best laptops, the only thing all the members are discussing is which company offers the cheapest models. Hardly anything else is being considered. And Apple can never thrive in a market that is dominated by people purchasing second hand stuff from gray markets and bargaining for the price - and that is the sort of market we have in India.

Apple does well in developed countries because people there recognise the value of a good store with knowledgeable and warm employees, the Genius Bar's usefulness, the quality and design of Apple's products and are willing to pay a little premium for all these (sometimes intangible) advantages. Try telling Indians to do that. You'll find very few people who are ready to invest in quality.

What quality? Ask the laptop users here who are using dell or HP laptops & how satisfied they are by the OS & hardware.

o i didnt know tht hp & dell make crap laptops and i did not even know tht apple makes thebest laptop

arya the discussions are not only about the price it is about the best at the cheapest price

^^^ Offtopic
My Compaq laptop is crap for sure, touchpad heats up even after 2 hours of use, coz the morons put the HDD right next to touchpad, touchpad polish has faded even though I purchased the laptop on 7 Dec 2006, Volume Buttons refuse to work on linux forcing me to use Windows, Screen is the strongest dust magnet, if i have ever seen one, not to mention the weight that I have begun to use it as a desktop replacement and am seriously considering to buy a new laptop (Either a Macbook or Dell XPS M1210, whichever is cheaper and can be bought on installments, Heck I can even purchase the one from HCL, if am able to get neither, the HCL 12 inch costs below 40grand for a Centrino machine)

Steve Jobs once rightly said, good design is not about how the product looks, but how well it works.

The fading of colour is a pervasive problems on all Compaq laptops. I have yet to see a nine months-one year old Compaq laptop that does not have a faded trackpad and hand rest.

As for which notebook you should buy, go with the HCL, of course, if you just want the cheapest one.

aryayush said:
The fading of colour is a pervasive problems on all Compaq laptops. I have yet to see a nine months-one year old Compaq laptop that does not have a faded trackpad and hand rest.

Gandi Gandi Baatein mat kar, ab palm rest bhi fade ho gaye to saare looks ka kachra ho jaayega.

aryayush said:
As for which notebook you should buy, go with the HCL, of course, if you just want the cheapest one.

As for the price and cheapest product, I do not care for money, I care for Value for money, I am going to buy a Macbook if can be assured that fading etc will not take place, you have one na, Mac Book or macbook pro? how old, any fading or distortion in looks of laptop?

I mentioned HCL coz, if i am not gonna get value for money why waste money (Looks form a significant factor,and that's major reason, I have panned my Compaq and waana go for Macbook apart from the weight and size) Moreover, I will be using @ workplace where no one's ever heard of ipod (leave alone OSX) So its 49% that I waana try OSX but 51% coz of the oomph factor

the oomph factor is the only reason ppl buy macs ...

hey my laptop is 10 months old and no fading or what so ever. I believe you have v2000 series (silver color one) laptop. those laptops are having this fading problem. buy HP compaq v3000 series or HP dv series (Black color). DV series are simply gorgeous.. I've seen Black MacBook. Nothing special in terms of look. BTW you can take your laptop to HP service center, they will change the body

If you do not like the looks of Apple's notebooks, I don't know which company's you will like. Even the staunchest haters of Apple products would agree that they look good enough to eat and that OS X rocks.

kumarmohit said:
Gandi Gandi Baatein mat kar, ab palm rest bhi fade ho gaye to saare looks ka kachra ho jaayega.

Yeah, I was talking about the palm rest. My brother has a year old Compaq notebook and the colour has faded on the trackpad and palm rest area. The speaker grilles have also become rusted. Within one year, it has become complete crap. You cannot burn DVDs on it and it refuses to connect to the Internet. Only Microsoft Word works and that is the only reason he has resisted formatting it so far. He is now buying a Lenovo notebook.

kumarmohit said:
As for the price and cheapest product, I do not care for money, I care for Value for money, I am going to buy a Macbook if can be assured that fading etc will not take place, you have one na, Mac Book or macbook pro? how old, any fading or distortion in looks of laptop?

MacBook Pros are made of industry standard anodised aluminium. You can pour water on it, use it when you are sweating like a loose tap or expose it to extreme heat - nothing will happen to it. I hope you know the properties of anodised aluminium.

As for the MacBook, I have heard complaints about it being prone to scratches but I've yet to see anyone complaining about colour fading. The plastic material is prone to scratches though so you might consider getting a cover that costs Rs. 300. That gives your notebook all the protection from scratches that it needs. The employee at the Apple Premium Reseller here actually showed me how effective that cover is by trying to scratch the notebook with a key while that cover was on. The cover got scratched but nothing happened to the notebook.

kumarmohit said:
Moreover, I will be using @ workplace where no one's ever heard of ipod (leave alone OSX) So its 49% that I waana try OSX but 51% coz of the oomph factor

LOL! Yeah, it has oodles of that oomph factor.

amitava82 said:
hey my laptop is 10 months old and no fading or what so ever. I believe you have v2000 series (silver color one) laptop. those laptops are having this fading problem. buy HP compaq v3000 series or HP dv series (Black color). DV series are simply gorgeous.. I've seen Black MacBook. Nothing special in terms of look. BTW you can take your laptop to HP service center, they will change the body

No its the C303TU from the C300 series, the one with Core Solo, Yes its the silver tone, and no thanks, I have had it with HP/Compaq. Time to move on.

@aryaayush

MacBook Pro to meri aukaat aur zarurat dono se bahar hai, jobs ko bol Macbook aluminium ki banane ko, anyway, Can I get this 300 Rs cover from the shop I get my MacBook and moreover will it be on the laptop all the time I use it, like we have the plastic covers on cellphones?

Biggest question, MacBook installments par milta hai kya?
And one more thing, I think all new models of models come with Super Drive, am I correct, does even the lowest model in India come with Super Drive, C2D and 1G RAM (These are the new specs in USA, I think)?

The cover is a very thin, transparent plastic cover, similar to the thin cover that you get on the screens of new mobile phones. You can use those covers to cover the top, bottom and screen of your MacBook. For the keyboard, you need to buy a washable keyboard cover that will cost you another Rs. 300.

The specs of the MacBooks:

*www.apple.com/macbook/specs.html

The lowest end model only comes with a combo drive.

There isn't much price difference between the lowest model and the second one. So, it would be wiser to opt for that one.
As for the availability of the installments option, you'll have to ask the vendor.

Hmm 600 for covers, no worry spending money if I can get all the covers from the same vendor I get the Mac Book from, tho I have decided to hangon till Leopard comes coz it will carry boot camp production release(Khidkiyan bhi to kholni hogi), then I will go for the cheapest model with superdrive.

kumarmohit said:
Hmm 600 for covers, no worry spending money if I can get all the covers from the same vendor I get the Mac Book from, tho I have decided to hangon till Leopard comes coz it will carry boot camp production release(Khidkiyan bhi to kholni hogi), then I will go for the cheapest model with superdrive.

Wise decision. I completely forgot to mention that. Yes, it makes complete sense to wait for Leopard. I am so bloody excited about it; it is going to be one Hell of an operating system. ::dances around::

I can already foresee gx_saurav and iMav tapping you on the shoulder and telling you what a crap decision you are making. Best of luck dealing with that!

Oh no, They already know that:

One, I am buying MacBook because of the purely Oomph factor, Yes I wanna showoff baby.

Two, Leopard might be a great OS and all, for me its the beauty and oomph and uniqueness of OSX, but the reason for wait is money and more importantly, a Production Release of Boot Camp coz @ the end of the day my boss will say, This thing is great and all, but will it run our comapny's softwares written in DotNet... so I get the best of the both world's. Work with a style....

hey arya dont jump around ... wen leopard is released we will be there again ... telling the truth and un-earthing facts tht u wont

kumarmohit said:
Two, Leopard might be a great OS and all, for me its the beauty and oomph and uniqueness of OSX, but the reason for wait is money and more importantly, a Production Release of Boot Camp coz @ the end of the day my boss will say, This thing is great and all, but will it run our comapny's softwares written in DotNet... so I get the best of the both world's. Work with a style....

BTW, Parallels Desktop is the better way to use Windows on a Mac. It is so obviously better than Boot Camp that Apple itself uses it as an advertisement for Macs.

Yeah but parallels mean more money

Everything on Mac means more Money. That is the only thing they know how to give properly "High prices". Too Bad in Windows you can simply download Virtual PC or VMWare server to virtualize an OS other then Mac OS X.

But hey, you are paying of the oomph factor, & who cares for overheating macbook which comes with a combo drive, atleast it has a white color & Apple Logo. Who cares for the Mac keyboard which lacks many keys used in Windows.

Features is not equal to better according to arya, yeah. Macbook has oomph factor, thats it. Everything else can go to hell, who cares for low battery life, over heating chassis & what not.

ya ul certainly miss ctrl

Apple keyboards have the Ctrl key.

gx_saurav said:
Who cares for the Mac keyboard which lacks many keys used in Windows.

But are not used in Mac OS X. I am happy Apple does not cram more keys onto the keyboard when they are not even used.

kumarmohit said:
Yeah but parallels mean more money

gx_saurav said:
Too Bad in Windows you can simply download Virtual PC or VMWare server to virtualize an OS other then Mac OS X.

@kumarmohit, Parallels is the best but it is not the only one. You have an alternative from VMWare too and there is another free VM application that is currently in beta. Neither gives you the ease of use, complete integration, innovative features and attractiveness of the Parallels product but they do the job well if you don't want to spend extra. And in any case, all three products are far far better than Virtual PC (do people even use it anymore!) or VMWare server on Windows.

You have to pay for a better quality product though. Coherence itself is worth the money. The new version will allow complete cross platform compatibility. For example: you can set the default application for opening webpages in your Windows installation to Safari and in Mac OS X to Internet Explorer in the Windows VM. Isn't that neat!

Jab Okhli mein Sir de diya to mooslon se kya darna, thoda risk to lena hi hoga.

Fikar not iMav, for I will be using external Keyboard in office when I use Windows. Laptop KBs are a pain for me any way, coz they do not have seperate numeric keys like desktop KB.

As for combo drive I will go for the Mid level one, coz it comes with bigger HDD (120GB?) and super drive coz I have to insert Windows as well.

Overheating yes, I guess I will have to persuade the vendor for allowing me to do a test run for 2 hours or before I make payments. But lets see, I am no parting with any money till leopard is out and these new specifications reflect on Apple's India website here *www.asia.apple.com/store/india/

Never ever do the mistake of relying on the Apple India website. I think they only upgrade it once every two years. The new Mac Mini has been out for over a year and the Apple India website still shows the old specifications and price. But go to any Apple Authorised Reseller and you won't find that Mini anymore. Moral of the story is: Keep the phone number of an Apple Authorised Reseller handy and use that to know about Apple's products in India.

Heating (not overheating though) is an issue with MacBook Pros, not with the MacBooks.

I will just drop a PM to Goobimama, He has a Macbook I think, lets see what has he gotta say abt heating issues.

He doesn't. He has an iMac.

No one I know on this forum has a MacBook.

If you have some relative in the US, you can get this configuration for Rs. 72,319.

Display: 15.4-inch (diagonal), 1440 by 900 resolution, TFT widescreen
Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2GB (two SO-DIMMs) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)
PCI Express graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB of GDDR3 SDRAM and dual-link DVI
Hard disk drive: 120GB Serial ATA; 5400 rpm
Slot-loading optical drive: 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Expansion: One FireWire 400, one FireWire 800, two USB 2.0 ports, and ExpressCard/34 slot
Video: Built-in iSight camera, DVI, VGA (DVI to VGA adapter included)
Audio: Combined optical digital input/audio line in, combined optical digital output/headphone out, stereo speakers, microphone
Ethernet: Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit)
Wireless: Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11n); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Input: Apple Remote; full-size, illuminated keyboard with ambient light sensor; scrolling trackpad
Weight: 5.4 pounds
Footprint: 14.1 by 9.6 inches
Thickness: 1.0 inch
Video accessories : DVI to VGA adapter included
Hardware accessories: 85W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, lithium-polymer battery

You can also get the just outdated configuration of the fifteen inch MacBook Pro for around Rs. 60,000. Give it a thought... if you have a relative in the US of A.

Of course, you should wait for WWDC either way but I want to point out that if possible, exercise this option even at that time.

kumarmohit said:
I care for Value for money

you said It , Indian market is very sensitive to Value for money , they'll buy an expensive product if it has a very good VFM

I also remember reading in TOI that one of Nokia's most expensive phones sold the most units in india compared worldwide bcoz it provided tremendous value for money .

aryayush said:
He doesn't. He has an iMac.

No one I know on this forum has a MacBook.

If you have some relative in the US, you can get this configuration for Rs. 72,319.

Display: 15.4-inch (diagonal), 1440 by 900 resolution, TFT widescreen
Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2GB (two SO-DIMMs) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)
PCI Express graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 128MB of GDDR3 SDRAM and dual-link DVI
Hard disk drive: 120GB Serial ATA; 5400 rpm
Slot-loading optical drive: 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Expansion: One FireWire 400, one FireWire 800, two USB 2.0 ports, and ExpressCard/34 slot
Video: Built-in iSight camera, DVI, VGA (DVI to VGA adapter included)
Audio: Combined optical digital input/audio line in, combined optical digital output/headphone out, stereo speakers, microphone
Ethernet: Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit)
Wireless: Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11n); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Input: Apple Remote; full-size, illuminated keyboard with ambient light sensor; scrolling trackpad
Weight: 5.4 pounds
Footprint: 14.1 by 9.6 inches
Thickness: 1.0 inch
Video accessories : DVI to VGA adapter included
Hardware accessories: 85W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, power cord, lithium-polymer battery

You can also get the just outdated configuration of the fifteen inch MacBook Pro for around Rs. 60,000. Give it a thought... if you have a relative in the US of A.

Of course, you should wait for WWDC either way but I want to point out that if possible, exercise this option even at that time.

Oh no, I do not want another 15inch monster, my Compaq C303TU is big enuf, I want small, sexy and novel so Mac Book . MPPro is out of question unless Apple sells a 12 or 13 inch model. Though Dell's XPS M1330 also looks a serious competetor, lets see if it can make it to India in time

*www.engadget.com/2007/06/04/dell-xps-m1330-performance-ultraportable-revealed/

@kumarmohit, visit this topic:

Fifteen days with an Apple MacBook

The author lists some of the pros and cons (though by no means all of them) and gives his recommendation at the end which, in my humble opinion, is the correct one. A must read for you.

Been thru it already, Thanks!