Managing Rights Management

Rovi and D-Box Technologies Digital Fingerprinting Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Rovi, the first application discloses techniques for filtering repeated content using digital fingerprints. Assigned to D-Box Technologies, the second application discloses techniques for media recognition and synchronisation to a motion signal using digital fingerprinting.

Intertrust and DTS Digital Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to Intertrust, the first patent addresses techniques for encoding and protecting data using digital signature and watermarking. Assigned to DTS, the second patent addresses a temporally accurate watermarking system and method of operation.

CES 2012: The Afterview Overview

There's a ZDNet post by Jason Perlow suggesting that the show has 3 years to live given that APPL doesn't participate and that MSFT has withdrawn starting next year. May be correct despite this year's apparent high energy and positive tone. It seems like a lot of "also rans" chasing market share of the remainder after Apple has gobbled up smartphones, tablets, etc.

The OLED TV screens (Samsung, LG) are superduper: vivid colors, very bright, very thin, very expensive although the prices will come down as manufacturing gets down the learning curve. Living room integration and home control integration have made incremental progress since last year, but no big "Ah Has". More floor space to digital health gizmos and applications. Auto / Entertainment integration continues incrementally in both the new car and aftermarket products. The distraction factor remains a concern.

There were all too numerous small companies trying to get design wins for their component products. Hope springs eternal, I guess. Then there were the also all too numerous companies displaing add-ons to Apple products with an interesting substantially fewer number doing Android phone and tablet add-ons.

Digital rights management, watermarking, and fingerprinting are alive and well in a broad range of content identification and content distribution and access value propositions. Civolution, Gracenote, and Motorola (Secure Media's HLS+) were among those showing explicit applications of various content protection and identification technologies. I saw incremental improvements and some new applications. Most of the DRM related capabilities were transparent to the user as they should be.

Although a bit off topic, the 3D printers from MakerBot and Cubify and the 3D printing service from Sculpteo were very interesting. Hard to tell whether this will be a "great idea" with limited markets or whether the vendors can do the right marketing to grow revenue sufficiently to sustain these companies.

NBC Universal and Microsoft Watermarking Patent Applications

On Thursdays the UPSTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to NBC Universal, the first application discloses techniques for digital watermark detection in 2D-3D content conversion. Assigned to Microsoft, the second application discloses the use of a watermark to identify a leak source.

Adobe and Hitachi DRM Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO isues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Adobe, the first patent addresses techniques for locally caching digital rights information. Assigned to Hitachi (JP), the second patent addresses techniques for an interface that can prevent video signals from being copied easily and which uses a luminance/color difference signal transmission scheme with an excellent harmony with a television circuit.

Broadcom and Digimarc Watermarking Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to Broadcom, the first application discloses techniques for supporting watermark embedding in multimedia system-on-chips. Apparently assigned to Digimarc, the second application discloses techniques for signal processing of audio and video data, including assessment of embedded data.

HP and Sunplus Technology DRM Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents address aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to HP, the first patent concerns techniques for determining whether a digital rights management system's native license is valid. Assigned to Sunplus Technology (TW), the second patent concerns a proprietary portable audio player system for protecting digital content copyrights.

Two Sony Digital Fingerprinting Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications address aspects of digital fingerprinting and both are assigned to Sony (JP). The first application discloses media fingerprinting for social networking. The second application discloses media fingerprinting for content determination and retrieval.

Two Irdeto Conditonal Access Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of conditional access systems typically used in cable, satellite, and IPTV systems and both are assigned to Irdeto (NL). The first application discloses techniques for disabling a cleartext control word loading mechanism in a conditional access system. The second application discloses broadcasting variants of digital signals in a conditional access system.

Microsoft and Toshiba DRM Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications address aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Microsoft, the first application discloses domain management techniqjues for digital media. Assigned to Toshiba (JP), the second application discloses an AV communication control circuit for realizing copyright protection with respect to radio LAN.

Voible Fingerprinting and ETRI Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays the USTPO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital fingerprinting and digital watermarking. Assigned to Vobile, the first patent addresses techniques for fingerprinting digital video object based on multiresolution, multirate spatial and temporal signatures. Assigned to the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (KR), the second patent addresses techniques for selecting test stimuli for use in evaluating performance of video watermarking methods.

Civolution and Pitney Bowes Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of watermarking. Assigned to Civolution (NL), the first patent addresses the embedding and detection of watermark in a motion image signal. Assigned to Pitney Bowes, the second patent addresses techniques for detecting printed image copies using phase-space-encoded fragile watermark.

Dolby Fingerprinting and KT Watermarking Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital fingerprinting and digital watermarking. Assigned to Dolby, the first application discloses techniques for content identification and quality monitoring. Assigned to KT Corporation (KR), the second applicaiton discloses techniques for inserting a digital watermark.

Rovi and Quiro Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents address aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to Rovi, the first patent concerns techniques for self-protecting digital content. Assigned to Quiro holdings, the second patent concerns client-side watermarking using hybrid I-Frames (an aspect of MPEG video compression).

Two Rovi Fingerprinting Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotllight Applications concern aspects of digital fingerprinting of audio and both are assigned to Rovi. The first application discloses techniques for rolling audio recognition. The second application discloses  multi-stage lookup techniques for rolling audio recognition.

Rovi and LG Copy Protection Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of technologies for copy protection. Assigned to Rovi, the first patent addresses a client user interface for a copy protection service. Assigned to LG Electronics (KR), the second patent addresses copy protection techniques for digital media.

Dolby and Frauhofer Digital Fingerprinting Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Dolby, the first application discloses techniques for distributed media fingerprint repositories. Assigned to Frauhofer (DE), the second application discloses techniques for for synchronizing multichannel extension data with an audio signal and for processing the audio signal.

Panasonic and IBM Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to Panasonic, the first patent addresses watermarking techniques for sound encoding. Assigned IBM, the second patent addresses techniques for embedding and detecting watermarks based on embedded positions in document layout.

Emulex Fingerprinting and Avid Watermarking Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Today's Spotlight Applications address  aspects of digital watermarking and digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Emulex Design & Manufacturing, the first application discloses techniques for verifying correct encryption key utilization. Assigned to Avid, the second application discloses techniques for watermarking motion pictures.

Sony Ericsson and Yamaha DRM Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight Patents address aspects of digital rights management. Assigned to Sony Ericsson, the first patent concerns techniques for multimedia distribution and/or playing using separate resolution-enhancing supplemental data. Assigned to Yamaha, the second patent concerns techniques based on copyright for inhibiting music recording.

FSU Watermarking and UMaryland Fingerprinting Issued Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital watermarking and digital fingerprinting. Assigned to the Florida State University Research Foundation, the first patent concerns techniques for embedding and extracting a digital watermark. Assigned to the University of Maryland, the second patent concerns techniques for fingerprinting digital media.

Cisco and ETRI Conditional Access Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of conditional access systems. Assigned to Cisco, the first application discloses techniques for delivering secure IPTV services to PC platforms. Assigned to the Electronics And Telecommunications Research Institute (KR), the second application discloses techniques for 'a downloadable Conditional Access System, secure micro, and transport processor, and security authentication.

KAIST and Auditude Digital Fingerprinting Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to the Korea Advanced Institute Of Science And Technology (KAIST), the first application discloses techniques for producing multimedia fingerprint based on quantum hashing. Assigned to Auditude, the second application discloses techniques for extracting video fingerprints and identification of multimedia using video fingerprinting.

Two Digital Fingerprinting Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications address various aspects of digital fingerprinting. The first application discloses techniques for automatically monitoring viewing activities of television signals, no assignee given. The second application discloses techniques for facilitating the searching of video content, no assignee given.

Sample Digital and Sony Issued DRM Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of DRM. Assigned to Sample Digital Holdings, the first patent addresses using DRM for media content collaboration throughout a media production process. Assigned to Sony (JP), the second patent addresses techniques for controlling distribution of content to network devices.

CES 2010: DRM Is Alive And Well - Part 1

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show was very upbeat, perhaps more so than two years ago (last year doesn't count given the economic implosion resulting in widespread malaise and depression). Of course the purpose of the these shows is to drum up excitement. 3D TV (not quite ready for prime time in my view, but I did not spend much time looking), Mobile, and Auto seemed to be the principal sectors leading the charge.

Having seen a lot of the show (at the expense of my feet), one conclusion is that rights management, broadly construed, is everywhere. In saying this, I'm taking a very expansive view of rights management to include both technical and non-technical--largely business model factors--means of protecting digital content. I'm excluding from consideration music CDs and related issues since there does not seem to be a good solution specific to the CD problem that is acceptable to privacy and consumer advocates.

In giving a few selected examples of how rights management is being further insinuated into services and business models, I'm leaving out many vendors (apologies to those not mentioned). I'm sure that critics will be able to find counter examples  My goal here is simply to identify trends.

Various parties with DRM and related solutions were at the show, including Irdeto and Digital Containers. HDMI Licensing had a booth as well. Metadata company Gracenote had a  booth that also highlighted customer applications. Executives from Widevine were in town but did not have a booth.

Media futurist Gerd Leonhard (among others) have long argued that the future of media is and should be streaming rather than downloading files. The 2010 CES makes it perfectly clear that the world is moving substantially toward media streaming. More in the next installment. 

ContentGuard and Wisteria Digital Watermarking Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications address various aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to ContentGuard, the first application discloses multi-stage techniques for watermarking. Assigned to Wisteria Trading (Scott Moskovitz {hi Scott}), the second application discloses techniques for optimizing the insertion, protection, and detection of digital watermarks in digital data.

DECE Moving Toward "buy once, play anywhere" Deployment

Many outlets including New York Times and Variety highlight progress by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, a broad consortium of companies implementing a cloud-based "buy once, play anywhere" content distribution strategy .

DECE has tapped Virginia-based Neustar to operate that digital locker. It's also approved Adobe Flash Access, CMLA-OMA V2, the Marlin DRM Open Standard, Microsoft PlayReady and Widevine as the five digital rights management formats that can protect the files stored in the locker.

Apple and Disney remain holdouts.

Microsoft and Toshiba Digital Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both of today's Spotlight Patents concern digital watermarking. Assigned to Microsoft, the first patent addresses techniques for the derivation and quantization of robust non-local characteristics for blind watermarking. Assigned to Toshiba (JP), the second patent addresses digital watermarking techniques.

Thomson and Alcatel-Lucent Digital Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Digital watermarking continues to be a hot topic. Yesterday, two patents dealing with applications of digital watermarking were each issued to Thomson (7,630,511, 7,631,358) and to Alcatel-Lucent (7,630,512, 7,630,509). Issued to Thomson, the first of today's Spotlight Patents concerns techniques for improving the detection of watermarks in content that has undergone a lossy transformation. Assigned to Alcatel-Lucent, the second patent concerns techniques for performing recoverable video and image watermarking which survives block-based video and image compression.

Fingerprinting and Watermarking Patent Applications

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital fingerprinting and watermarking.  Assigned to Landmark Digital Services, the first patent addresses techniques for robust and invariant audio pattern matching. Assigned to KDDI (JP), the second patent addresses techniques for digital watermarking and drift compensation.

Sun and Microsoft Fingerprinting Patent Applications

Happy Thanksgiving to all. On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Sun, the first application discloses techniques for media fingerprint indexing.  Assigned to Microsoft, the second application discloses techniques for verifying the integrity of remote data using digital fingerprinting.

Mitsubishi Watermarking and Thomson Fingerprinting Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Today's Spotlight Applications concern digital watermarking and fingerprinting. Assigned to Mitsubishi Electric (JP), the first application discloses techniques for electronic watermarking embedding and detection. Assigned to Thomson, the second application discloses techniques for object oriented fingerprinting of digital videos.

Apple And NEC DRM Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications concern aspects of DRM. Assigned to Apple, the first application discloses techniques for protecting audio and video on media playback devices. Assigned to NEC, the second application discloses protecting digital content on mobile devices.

LSI and Philips Watermarking Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Both today's Spotlight Patents concern aspects of digital watermarking. Assigned to LSI,the first patent concerns techniques for video watermarking and steganography ["hidden writing"] using simulated film grain. Assigned to Philips (NL), the second patent concerns for techniques for detecting a watermark in a digital signal.

Nvidia Watermarking and Digimarc Fingerprinting Issued Patents

On Tuesdays the USPTO issues new patents. Today's Spotlight patents address aspects of digital watermarking and digital fingerprinting. Assigned to Nvidia, the first patent concerns techniques for tracing distribution of video content with video watermarks. Assigned to Digimarc, the second patent concerns techniques for managing audio and other media.

Rovi Watermarking and Philips Fingerprinting Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new patent applications. Today's Spotlight Applications address aspects of digital watermarking and fingerprinting. Assigned to Rovi (nee Macrovision), the first application discloses techniques for watermarking and distributing content. Assigned to Philips (NL), the second application discloses techniques for selecting content from a stream of video or audio data.

The BD+ Cat and Mouse Game: Advantage BD+

The programmable security technology used by Fox and more recently Paramount to protect theatrically released films on Blu-ray discs represents an important step forward over previous security technologies, such as the quickly broken CSS for DVDs and AACS encryption key management used on the now dead HD-DVD and on Blu-ray. Although no security technology is perfect, BD+ is an important advance because the programming can be modified in response to successfull cracks. 

There has always been a cat and mouse game between security technologies of all kinds and those who seek to break them. Each side learns from the others successes and failures and improves their defense and offense accordingly. Postings on Slashdot  and the Slysoft website report that there are now at least 19 Blu-ray releases that have not yet been broken.

It appears that the least powerful forms of BD+ were used first in order to determine how crackers / hackers would attack the security system. Having been through several iterations, it seems that the level of security has been upgraded on the newer offerings.

Philips and Sony DRM Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Applications address aspects of DRM. Assigned to Philips, the first application discloses digital rights management for retrieving medical data from a server. Assigned to Sony, the second application discloses techniques for video upscaling.

Macrovision (MSVN) Earnings Call, Blu-ray, and BD+ Adoption

Macrovision (MSVM) recently conducted its quarterly earnings call. The complete transcript is at SeekingAlpha.com here. Here are selected excerpts that deal with Blu-ray and BD+:

In our other category, we continue to expect fairly linear growth, with the fourth quarter likely the strongest, assuming we continue to successfully broaden our licensing of BD+ to the MPAA studios....

In terms of our entertainment business, I'm pleased that we were able to reach a long-term agreement with Paramount for various copy protection solutions. When combined with our other licensees, I believe we have good visibility into ACP remaining on DVD's, until at least the middle of the next decade. Not only did Paramount agree to use RipGuard and ACP, but it also became the second MPAA studio to license the right to use our BD+ Blu-ray copy protection technology.

While home video entertainment spending declined 7% last quarter, according to Video Business, sales of Blu-ray DVDs were up over 100% and analysts forecast remain robust.

While the rollout of BD+ has taken longer than initially hoped, I think Paramount's agreement along with other MPAA trials which we recently began, bode well for the future.

So I believe our entertainment business will continue to be a little soft in the near term given market trends, I expect it will be a steady revenue contributor in the coming years as BD+ grows.

Paramount Licenses Macrovion Technologies Including BD+ For Blu-Ray

Macrovision has announced that Paramount Home Entertainment has licensed copy protection technologies including BD+, the programmable security and DRM technology used with Blu-ray optical discs. 

...Paramount Home Entertainment has agreed to license Macrovision’s content protection products, ACP and RipGuard. ACP and RipGuard provide protection against unauthorized copying of content across packaged media such as DVD as well as electronic channels such as the Internet, cable and DBS.

The license also grants Paramount the right to use Macrovision’s advanced Blu-ray protection technology, BD+. Along with the other technologies, Macrovision’s BD+ provides an additional content protection method for content released on Blu-ray. The Blu-ray format provides consumers with high definition video, a more interactive user experience via BD-Java, and exciting new features available in the most recent Blu-ray players with BD-Live. 

Thus far, Fox is the only studio known to be using BD+. The relationship between Macrovision and the BD+ licensing authority, BD+ Technologies, LLC, remains opaque.

AACS Interim License Agreement Expiring?

Tyler Pruitt points out that the AACS-LA interim licensing agreement expires on February 27th. AACS is one of the security standards used in Blu-ray discs and players (and in the now defunct HD-DVD format).

The thing that makes this important is the much lauded “Managed Copy” technology specifications are set to be finalized in the AACS Final Licensing Agreement. Managed Copy on Blu-ray will enable users to keep a HD quality copy of their movies on a central home server type device. This feature could be a killer app for the Windows Home Server market.

So will the market demand "Managed Copy"? Will the MPAA studios insistent on "Managed Copy"?

Stay tuned.

Macrovision (MSVN), Blu-ray, and BD+

Macrovision held it's quarterly earnings call for analysts and investors on Tuesday. Here are a few selected excerpts from different parts of the transcript that deal with BD+ security for Blu-ray discs and players and the uptake of Blu-ray players in the marketplace.

In other category, while we expect to see fairly linear growth, we do expect the fourth quarter will be the strongest, assuming we are successful at broadening our licensing of BD Plus to the MPA studios. Adding it all up, we expect approximately 53% to 55% of our 2009 annual revenue coming in the second half, similar to our adjusted pro forma revenue weightings in 2007 and 2008....

Apple Drops DRM, Norway Drops Law Suit

CNet and other outlets report that Norway's consumer watchdog is dropping legal action against Apple now that music from iTunes will be without DRM protection. The legal action complained that Apple's FairPlay DRM prevented tracks purchased from Apple could not be played on non-Apple devices. 

Norway's consumer ombudsman, Bjoern Erik Thon, said Wednesday that he would drop his complaint against iTunes before Norway's Market Council, telling Agence France Presse "we have no reason to pursue them anymore." Norway has been particularly vocal among European critics regarding the way Apple had used DRM technologies on the iTunes store to limit the use of purchased iTunes songs to iPods.

Apple's use of DRM served the dual goals of protecting music tracks and, more importantly, enforcing a business model that tied consumers to the Apple platform. However, given that the record industry business model has been broken for a long time, it's no surprise that the labels and Apple ended the use of FairPlay DRM for music.

HD and DRM

Writing in Personal Computer World, Barry Fox has a useful article on the dilemmas facing both consumers, studios, and networks over protecting HD video from capture, copying, and redistribution. The studios would prefer that consumers use HDMI compliant connections, but there are extensive legacy devices that only accept analog inputs.

In addition, not all HD capable devices protect high value content:

In theory, the studios can foil devices such as the Hauppauge PVR by burying ‘Image Constraint’ or ‘Digital Only’ tokens in the HD signal. These force a compliant disc player or receiver to down-res analogue HD content to SD, or completely blank the analogue output.

The token systems are controlled by AACS, the shadowy body that provides the copy protection system used by Blu-ray. Although Blu-ray has been on sale for a couple of years, AACS has still not set a final standard and protection has already been hacked. I asked the Blu-ray Group whether ICT and Dot flags would be used to stop analogue copying by the sledgehammer method of crippling all analogue play. “No comment,” said a spokesman. “It’s a studio decision to set flags.”

Pretty good protection may not be good enough in the long run, especially as broadband speeds increase further.  Verizon's FiOS' 20-20 symmetric service is a harbinger of things to come. While the video industry will continue to be well ahead of the music industry in content protection, failure to close all the holes may enable ongoing piracy and consumer file sharing.

Adobe Opens Up RTMP But Keeps DRM Under Wraps

Ars Technica reports that Adobe is opening up its Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), its widely used streaming media protocol. At the same time, Adobe is taking legal steps to protect the DRM components used in conjunction with RTMP.

Adobe has declined publish details about RTMP's DRM mechanism and will expressly forbid implementation of DRM circumvention measures in the license that governs the official RTMP specification.

"To benefit customers who want to protect their content, the open RTMP specification will not include Adobe's unique secure RTMP measures, nor will the license that accompanies the specification allow developers to circumvent such measures," the company revealed in a statement.

Hearing In RIAA Copyright Case Postponed - RIAA Appeals

The hearing previously scheduled for today in the RIAA instigated law suit against Joel Tennebaum (Sony BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum) has been postponed to allow the RIAA to appeal Judge Nancy Gertner's decision to allow the hearing to be webcast.

Hearing In RIAA Copyright Case To Be Televised

The Boston Globe reports that Federal  District Court Judge Nancy Gertner has agreed to allow next week's hearing in the RIAA's copyright suit against BU student Joel Tenenbaum to be televised. Tennebaum's legal defense team includes Harvard Law School professor Charles Nessom.

[Judge Gertner] dismissed as "specious" the recording industry's objections that publicity will influence potential jurors and said she has received assurances that the video stream will be unedited and available to all non-commercial users.

Gertner also said streaming court proceedings online will also serve the recording industry's stated objective of discouraging people from sharing music online.

The video will be streamed from the website of Harvard's Berkmen Center for Internet and Society. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, January 22nd.

Vudu and LG Conditional Access Patent Applications

On Thursdays the USPTO publishes new pending patent applications. Both of today's Spotlight Patent Applications address various aspects of conditional access systems. Assigned to Vudu (nee Vvond), the first application discloses techniques for access control of media services over an open network. Assigned to LG Electronics (KR), the second application discloses a host device interface with a point of deployment (POD) and a method of processing broadcast data.

Subscriber's Email Address Remains In DRM-Free Tracks From iTunes

Writing on CNet.UK, Nate Lanxon says that all though DRM has been removed from iTunes tracks, consumers should be aware that these files do still have the email address of the iTunes subscriber.

Although iTunes Plus files feature no copy protection, files downloaded still contain the email address you have registered with iTunes. So although files can physically be shared with, and played by, friends and family, any of your purchases that end up on file-sharing networks, for example, can be traced back to you.

If you're interested in an easy way to check your own files, find an iTunes Plus file on your computer. Then choose to open it with a text editor (Windows Notepad works fine). It'll take a while to open and will appear to be full of nonsense text, but if you choose the 'Find' option and type in the email address you have registered with the iTunes Store, you'll find that your DRM-free music is not personal information-free.