Low End Mac Reader Specials

Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free shipping / LIfetime warranty.

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, Apple Batteries and Apple A/C Adapters. Also Great prices on Used Apple Computers. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.

Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.

Apple Archive

How to Beat iTunes Copy Restricions Legally

- 2004.05.03

We got a new version of iTunes, version 4.5, last week. With the new version comes a new limitation on burning songs downloaded from the iTunes Music Store. Instead of being able to burn ten CDs of one playlist, now you can only burn seven.

There is a positive to the new version as well - now you can have five computers authorized to play licensed songs, instead of three as previously.

Thinking about it. If you need 8 or 9 copies of the same playlist, you could just open up Toast and make a duplicate of the CD you burned. That's easy enough.

It's the fact that Apple is limiting this at all that bothers me. My LPs, CDs, and cassette tapes don't have any limits on the amount of times I can copy them. I can make as many copies as I want of the Iron Maiden LP I'm currently listening to because there are no restrictions in the recording itself that prevents me from doing so.

And it's not just Apple doing it. Apple's limitations are lenient compared to most other music downloading services! We all know the recording industry is behind this, but why bother to implement such restrictions when there are simple ways to circumvent the "built in" protection?

We've got to keep the music industry happy, so it's got to be there, even though it does practically nothing.

I'm not sure why anyone would want more than two or three copies of one album anyway - perhaps one in the living room, one in the bedroom, and one for the car. But it's the principle that something would be embedded to prevent people from copying it "too many times." (And you definitely want to burn at least one copy as a backup in case your hard drive crashed.)

Then there's the whole authorization issue to deal with. Once you've reached your limit, you've got to deauthorize one computer before you can authorize another. Five computers is the limit. If you should happen to be an extremely loyal Apple customer and buy a new machine every time Apple releases something new, you might pass your five machine limit pretty quickly. And after that? Your files are useless if you don't remember to deauthorize your old computers.

The fact is that iTunes is still quite clumsy when compared with what could be out there. How about something that just works with no authorization issues to deal with or useless restrictions on how many CDs you can burn?

Not that the music industry would go for it at all, especially because iTunes is quite successful as it is. But why? It's simple. iTunes is currently the least complicated and least restrictive of the major music download sites.

But what if you want your music restriction-free? What can you do then?

Well, there's still the good old-fashioned record store, and typically vinyl LPs are a few dollars cheaper than their CD counterparts (yes, they still make LPs out of the albums by just about any recent band you can think of, from The Darkness to [I hate to say it] Britney Spears).

If you want to save a bit of money on music and have no forcefully imposed restrictions on how often you copy your tunes, an LP might be for you.

You've also got to face the fact that while the iTunes Music Store has a good selection of music, but they don't have everything. It's amazing what interesting albums you can find at used record stores, thrift shops, and garage sales. Many of these older albums, whether LP or cassette, aren't available from the iTunes Music Store - and sometimes they're not even available on CD.

If you want your music on the computer, just record the songs from the LP or tape and save them as MP3 files and use iTunes to rip songs from CDs you own. Since they'll be unrestricted files, you can then do what you like with them while resting assured that you've still paid for your music.

Recent Apple Archive articles

Links for the Day

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Apple Archive articles copyright ©2000-07 by Adam Robert Guha. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
  LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
  Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
  Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
  PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
  Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.


Have a question?
Ask an expert!

Navigation

Used Mac Dealers
Apple History
Video Cards
Email Lists
InfoMac's Low
End Mac Forum

Favorite Sites

MacSurfer
MacMinute
MacInTouch
MyAppleMenu
InfoMac
Macs Only!
The Mac Observer
Accelerate Your Mac
RetroMacCast
PB Central
MacWindows
The Vintage Mac
   Museum
DealMac
DealsOnTheWeb
Mac2Sell
ramseeker
Mac Driver Museum
JAG's House
System 6 Heaven
System 7 Today
the pickle's Low-End
   Mac FAQ
Abandonware
   Petition
Mac vs. PC Info

Affiliates

The Apple Store
Mac Connection
MacMall
TechRestore
MacResQ
ExperCom
Crucial Memory
batteries.com

Advertise

All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For price quotes and advertising information, please contact at BackBeat Media (646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.

Open Link

Problems viewing this page with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6? It works fine in other browsers, including IE 7. We recommend Firefox for those using Windows, as it is standards based and more secure than IE 6 (and earlier). More LEM visitors use Firefox than any other browser.