Maybe there’s no DRM on iTunes LP after all? I could have sworn that when Apple announced the completely useless new feature last week that it had said there would be measures in place to prevent people from sharing iTunes LP files with one another. Apparently not, since I was able to find the iTunes LP version of the new Muse album online a few minutes ago. Exactly where I found it is irrelevant; what’s newsworthy is that, yeah, it seems that these things can be passed around pretty easily.
The file is one .itlp file that weighs in at around 326MB. (For comparison’s sake, a standard scene rip of the album is 76MB.) By merely dragging that one .itlp file into your iTunes library you now have access to the full iTunes LP album. I checked out a few pictures, but seeing as though I wouldn’t know who Muse is if they’d punch me in the face (I’m more of a house and hip-hop guy; rock, eh…) it didn’t interest me a great deal.
One word of caution to would-be iTunes LP pirates: it seems that your iTunes account info is embedded in the files, so I wouldn’t go around uploading your .itlp of The Blueprint 3 to Rapidshare or whatever.
And yes, that USB drive is named WWE. I’m a dork.
The media (music/video) files in .itlp *can* have DRM, though they can easily be replaced by non-DRM equivalents. The .itlp files themselves have no DRM.
If one knows what they’re doing, it’s easy enough to strip one’s email address and iTunes account info from the file.
Well that makes sense, Pat. Many thanks.
I was just saying in our chat room that I don’t expect to see too many iTunes LPs floating around. They’re sorta big, and, I don’t know, sorta silly. I guess we’ll see in the coming days how this plays out.
I haven’t bothered to check out the iTunes LP yet (I prefer vinyl), I don’t understand the massive file size of the itlp file unless there are videos in it I suppose. Large scale images and the lyrics are a nice addition, but that could easily be kept under 30MB.
Storage isn’t an issue on a laptop/PC, but it is on a iPhone or other portable device. I just don’t see the need for this but I’m willing to be proved wrong.
VERY interesting . . .
I had though this was a really smart way for Apple to encourage a whole new way of using the iTunes store and really ramping up revenue; if my kids are any indication there’s still a surprisingly high level of interest in liner notes, etc.
But if they are unprotected, it’s just . . . one more thing to be pirated and passed about.
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As they are made of HTML and Javascript it is probably impossible to add DRM to them, and even if there is a way it won’t take lon
i thought they embedded the songs with the users email account so they could tell who was passing the stuff around
I’ve been looking for it all night long, in all possible warez sites with no luck :(, I’m from Uruguay (south america) and they are not available in the Uruguayan itunes store (in fact there are no music at all! just iphone apps), and I really want to give it a try, be nice and point us the the site ;)
Dude, I’m from Uruguay too!
Maestro, encontre todo online, buscalo y vas a encontrar, no quiero postear links aca. Vamo arriba Uruguay noma.
Saludos.
I thought it’s pretty well known that Apple’s not very fond of DRM or protection in general.
Most of their software (Mac OS, ilife, iWorks etc) are sold without any sort of protection.
I did a pretty in depth write up on the iTunes LP format, from both a content and a development perspective. Check it out. http://www.ericpaulsnowden.com/blog/index.php/2009/09/dissecting-the-itunes-lp/