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[FortNinety]

So a fave album of mine which I had in mp3 format got screwed up (now there a few, but still very annoying, pops and hisses) and I'm having a hard time finding copies online, so I've decided to say screw it and buy the whole thing on iTunes.

But I've never done this before and have some basic questions, all of them about DRM, or whatever the hell it is. What exactly does it do? I hear it prevents your from copying them too many different machines or what not. If someone can give me the basic skinny... thanks.

 

[SteveMeister]

So a fave album of mine which I had in mp3 format got screwed up (now there a few, but still very annoying, pops and hisses) and I'm having a hard time finding copies online, so I've decided to say screw it and buy the whole thing on iTunes.

But I've never done this before and have some basic questions, all of them about DRM, or whatever the hell it is. What exactly does it do? I hear it prevents your from copying them too many different machines or what not. If someone can give me the basic skinny... thanks.

It limits the number of computers you can play it on. You can use iTunes to authorize and deauthorize computers as often as you want. And you can only play the files on a computer using iTunes.

It limits the number of times you can burn a specific playlist to CD. But you can re-order or otherwise alter the playlist and burn it more times. There aren't any restrictions on the songs burned onto the CD.

It does not limit the number of iPods you can play it on.

It also does not prevent you from converting the file to a non-DRM'd format. You can do this within iTunes by burning the music to CD and then re-ripping it into the format of your choice. Otherwise there are tools outside of iTunes that'll do it for you.

 

[miyuru]

How does DRM work? No one knows a way around it without re-ripping the music (i.e. remove it directly in software)?

 

[shantyman]

How does DRM work? No one knows a way around it without re-ripping the music (i.e. remove it directly in software)?

It also does not prevent you from converting the file to a non-DRM'd format. You can do this within iTunes by burning the music to CD and then re-ripping it into the format of your choice. Otherwise there are tools outside of iTunes that'll do it for you.

.

 

[miyuru]

w00ps my bad, thanks!