Can Itunes report you for illegal downloads?

[S2_Mac]

Most of the folks above dropped out before 2006, a couple show activity as late as 2009...doubt you're going to get a response from any of the 2004 posters.

No, iTunes does not rat you out to anyone; I think you would have noticed the headlines ;-) If the "messages that something was not right" were audible messages (contained in tracks you were listening to) then you got suckered on LimeWire or Kazaa into downloading fake files, part of gatemp3's marketing -- gatemp3.com wants you to buy their service to get the "real" tracks.

[Sally Rogers]

Thanks for responding, Never noticed the voice over until I moved files to Itunes. I thought perhaps that Apple wanted me to go to a site where they would somehow try and find me, thanks for setting me straight.


I was worried that ITUNES might single me out if they knew I had lots of music, but never bought anything from them.

So I have nothing to worry about right?

[Cold Irons]

You have nothing to worry about. Apple doesn't care where you got your music, it really doesn't.

[Sally Rogers]

Thank You

[wrong_move]

How it's gonna be with your iTunes privacy when ACTA and other stuff came up? I wanted to buy my first iPod but I don't really want anyone to search through my playlists ... Sure, I usually buy songs online or I rip them from store bought CDs, but I have to admit it's sometimes hard to buy everything I want. Some albums cannot be found if they were released years ago or when I find something interesting 'it's not available in my country' (seriously, like I'm living in Narnia). So does anyone know how it is now with iTunes? Or how bad can it be soon?

[AFMG]

I'm guessing that IF ACTA/SOPA/WAWAWAWAWA or whatever thing comes up against piracy ever gets well designed and aproved in the USA, THEN it would be aheads up from Apple and other services to their customers before getting applied. Have you checked the updates that Apple does to the TOS from time to time? They always warn you beforehand, so you can read them and accept. So, next time take some time to read that.

Maybe I'm naive, but I think it would be rather troublesome, technically and legally, to implement such a way to develop/check/delete pirated music in your library and not getting into trouble with customers. Who knows?

[troh]

I inserted an audio CD into the DVD drive in my laptop this morning and this action automatically opened the I-Tunes player, which displayed the contents of the CD.

Apple and Microsoft would undoubtedly tell you that the operating system (Windows or Apple) does this as a convenience, to make it easier for you to access and perform various tasks related to "your" music. However, whether or not this is "your" music directly depends on the task. For instance, the music contained on the CD I inserted is not "my" music; it is owned by the copyright holder and, if I copy or rip all or part of it to my hard drive, according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, I could be arrested by the FBI, fined up to $250,000.00 and spend up to five years in jail for every cut or file I copied!

I am sure that the Apple I-Tunes server keeps a record or is capable of keeping a record or log of all or most the major activities associated with their Player. It likely records when you download or rip a piece of music and when you copy this music to your I-Pod or other MP3 Player or burn it to a CD or DVD.

You are not permitted to rip albums or selections from CD's or other copyrighted media and, if you bother to read the fine print in the License agreement, you are generally only licensed to make a single copy or transfer of each downloaded MP3 file, whether or not it is DRM protected!
DRM is short for Digital Rights Management; a process that prevents one from making more copies or transfers than are legally permitted by the media's peculiar license. When a store tells you that the file you're about to download is not "protected", they mean by DRM, not the DMCA and other International digital copyright laws!

BE WARNED: If you make more than one copy, whether or not you intend to sell it or make money from it, you are in violation of the law and subject to being arrested and suffer the outrageous penalties previously mentioned.

Though the FBI is mandated to investigate all violations of the DMCA, it waits to be informed of the violation, generally by the copyright holder or a watchdog, such as the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). It should be clearly understood that, just because the copyright holder or the RIAA does not choose to "prosecute" or inform the FBI of every violation, this does not mean that you could not be prosecuted for violating the law!

There is a new law in the works that recently passed in the House, called CISPA — short the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act .This bill would give the federal government and big companies limitless powers to spy on you! The Senate is currently considering revising it and would likely keep all or most of the teeth or provisions. This law would open the door for the government, copyright holders and media industry representatives to investigate copyright infringement and, when they find it, prompt the FBI to enforce the DMCA.

I have not read CISPA and am guessing that it and any other similar law will likely include a provision requiring that if I-Tunes or other online store suspects one of their clients is guilty of copyright infringement, they would be obliged to report it and, regardless of whether or not they were willing to do this, the government and other agencies would have access to their logs.

[Cold Irons]

Hold on....Running to get my tin-foil hat right now....

[troh]

Well, isn't that special! The most dangerous opinions are certainly those with the least amount of facts and research to support them! Dream on!

[troh]

I mainly joined IL and wrote that long reply to counteract your B.S. You're probably correct in assuming that Apple doesn't care about which files we copy and share but the copyright holders, especially the larger media companies, do care -- they care a LOT! Also, by not properly informing their subscribers about what they can and can't share, they are guilty of entrapment.

I was in the record business, as a retail manager, producer and record label owner for almost 30-years. I am trying to get back into the record biz or re-create it online and having a difficult time because the major companies will do anything and everything to retain the power and control that they enjoyed in the "real" world.

The key to selling music is to share music and permit others to do so, freely and openly, without fear of prosecution. The media industry is against sharing, not only music but the market and will try to block it in any way they can.

Apple mostly stopped using DRM protection because it was having a derogatory effect on sales. I-Tunes and other online stores tacitly support their mostly young and naive customers in freely sharing files and, by doing so, they are supporting them in breaking the law. For the moment, the media companies are mostly only prosecuting the worst offenders and this could change at any time, if these companies thought it was in their best interests to do so.

Unfortunately, when they really should be regulating both the media and communications industries, the government is mostly supporting and indulging them.

From 2007-2008, approximately 80% of the independent Internet radio stations, including many non-profits, were run out of business, because the FCC permitted the record companies to charge outrageous royalties for online music play. They are currently permitting companies, like Apple, AT&T, Samsung and others to limit and control the online market ("restrict trade") by strictly limiting online access to their own or their partners' stores on the Web. When was the last time you downloaded music from Amazon to your I-Pod or purchased an APP from anywhere but the I-Tunes APP Store?

Though you seem to have what was once called a "ready wit", you really need to get a handle on the blarney! I could almost hear a sigh of relief from one of the gullible people who believed what you said about Apple not caring whether or not we copy and share files. That person and likely a lot of others are taking your word for this, mainly because I'm probably the first person to challenge what is obviously only your uneducated opinion.