Free iTunes ID eraser
p2pnet.net news:- “Steve Jobs is keeping quiet on the fact Apple has been caught red-handed trying to promote the idea it’s anti-DRM on the one hand, and hiding user data in its new $1.30 iTunes downloads on the other,” p2pnet posted recently.
There isn’t much iTunes users can do about the price hike, but a new open source application from our mates over in France can certainly help with the second.
Called Privatunes, it was developed by the founders of Ratiatum and the brand-new Matoumba news reader.
It’s freeware which allows users who buy iTunes Plus tracks to wipe their tracks clean, erasing the AppleID (email address) and username.
Guillaume Champeau runs Ratiatum and, “We believe anyone who buys DRM-free songs online should be free to do whatever they’re legally entitled to do, including to sell it or let their close family or friends copy it, with no fear and no one spying over their shoulder.
Champeau says in his view, there’s zero need for a permanent personal ID tag when you sell something.
“There’s no reason to attach the name and email address of the buyer on whatever is being sold. Selling is the act of transfering a property from the owner to the buyer, and they should be no limit or restriction whatsoever.
“It’s what differenciates the so-called selling of a DRMed song (which is nothing other than long terme rental) and the selling of a DRM-free song.
“It’s a question of privacy, it’s a question of seller-customer trust, it’s a question of customers rights.”
Click here to download Privatunes. The source code is on the way, and we’ll also make it available from p2pnet. So stay tuned.
Also See:
p2pnet – iTunes ‘hidden data’ could backfire, June 4, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
June 26th, 2007 at 9:58 am
On downloading Privatunes:
“Ce logiciel est introuvable”
June 26th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Pity
June 26th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Hi,
Source code will be available soon for those who want to create a Mac version. Unless we do it ourselves if it’s demanded. We could’t spend time on both versions without knowing if people would be interested.
Cheers,
and thanks for the story Jon!
Guillaume
June 26th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
I don’t think it would be wise to sell your iTunes Plus tracks to someone else. The reason is because iTunes Plus tracks, especially when erased of personal information, can look look ordinary ripped tracks (iTunes can rip AAC in 256 kb/s). Selling these tracks could easily look like commercial infringement, considering both that the owner may have not necessarily deleted them from the computer and because the tracks can appear to be ripped tracks, which are illegal to sell without the original disc.
June 26th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
OK I don’t speak French. Is there an English version? Also what about erasing info on Itunes that you already have?
June 27th, 2007 at 12:53 am
People are interested.
June 27th, 2007 at 9:47 am
It was predicted right after it was noticed the info was in the track that it would not be that long before a fix was there. It would honestly tickle me to no end to see Steve Jobs name and Steve Jobs@apple.com to replace all those those have purchased tracks with their ids on them.
I also think it won’t be long till malware has the ability to read that same info if it is stored on your computer to reap the emails from all customers for spam lists. It’s just too promising a source in my mind not to be done. Thinking like a spammer for a minute, it’s a near guaranteed source of positive, verified, 99% validated email addresses. Why would anyone but the narrow-minded copyright forces want that in a place to be harvested? It’s a liberty I would not want taken with my private info and as such, it is a certainty I would not buy from people that do this sort of underhanded and sneaky way of doing business. Then, I’ve long had a problem with the media industries, so I guess that’s nothing new.
Well done to those that have developed a tool to remove your personal info from a commercial product that should never have been there in the first place.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Will an ENGLISH VERSION be available when the scource code is released?
July 7th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
I believe that there has to be some protection. However, I believe that it was right for apple to sell DRM free tracks to the consumers. I’m a staunch opponent of pirates who sell mass productive music that’s recently been put on the market. But I’m also a staunch opponent to those who locks up the material, so that consumers can’t copy, edit, and import music into other forms of media, or even create their personal creations using various copyrighted materials, like say, I want to rip various caracters from various video games that I have, and create my own world and put characters in that world, and even put various caracters in this game.
But This is the case of music. New technologies allow me to import ripped tracks from CDs and port them into a video game. Now, I think that EMI’s decision to strip DRM and put them iTunes Plus is a very good step in the direction. Now, I hope that the Motion Picture Association of America could look at the trend, and decide to back off on the failed AACS and the BD+ trend and start selling DRM free HD movies so that people can do what ever they want when they purchase a movie. And I don’t think that audio watermarks are going to work, because hackers are allready working on watermark strippers that are capable of hacking. Because, the rule is: If you can see it, you can copy it, no matter how strong the protection is.
I think that the less our movies are crippled, the less restrictions we have on our media, the more the media will sell. And I believe that I should have rights to do whatever I want to do with music, movies and video, and video and computer games that I purchased.
And Welcome to America! We are a country of freedom! I believe that freedom is valuable and is the regime that we rather live, because freedom creates not only peace, but new and enhanced civil societies, creations, inventions, and new frontiers.