convert protected m4p to mp3

Oh! I forgot to mention:

• • if you've ever purchased music in digital form from Amazon, each song will have an Amazon.com Song ID in the comments field. I believe that id is unique to your copy of the song
  • compared to imports from your CDs, purchases from the iTunes Store have additional fields displayed on the File tab:
    • purchased by (my full name and email address)
    • purchase date
    • copyright information

Amusingly, while checking my facts so that I could give you an accurate account, , I found a "home taping is killing music" logo that has been modified to read "home taping didn't kill music. Mr. So-and-so did".

I will refrain from naming said individual.

For a while Apple sold music in a protected format. Basically, that protection was designed to prevent anyone from making copies. However, Apple abandoned the protected file format several years ago and for a while offered people the opportunity to download previous purchases in an unprotected format.

Check your iTunes Store account to see whether any of your protected music is still available for download in unprotected format. If it isn't, I believe it is possible to burn protected tracks onto a CD and then re-import them into iTunes as unprotected songs.

cgartner29 wrote:

I purchased this music - 422 files worth.

Just so you know, you purchased a licence for each song. You did not purchase the rights to copy or make copies of the songs, even now. While all of this may (or may not) have been Apple's decision, I'm fairly certain it was done in order to pacify the music industry, that was worried about copyright theft.

Apple will still supply redownloads of 128k DRM protected media in the protected format. You can burn to audio CD and rip back, or use a one year subscription to iTunes Match which will let you match your purchases with the current content in the store, remove the copies that you have, and then redownload 256k DRM free versions which are yours to keep after you close your iTunes Match subscription. (Note this still doesn't actually upgrade the item in your purchase history - these are best hidden once you have the upgraded copies.)

tt2

I'm several years older than you, so I too think of LPs.

cgartner29 wrote:

I purchased the LP - then made a cassette to play in my car (I'm 53). There was nothing illegal about that.

Boy! Have I got news for you?

Although there are differences between the US and the UK regarding this topic, I don't think the US was significantly different to the UK (where I grew up). In law, music has never been "owned" by us, it's always been a "licence". All we owned was the physical record, that just happened to contain the music. Sounds odd, I know, but that the law for you. When the cassette recorder (and even more so, the twin cassette recorder) became good enough quality for us to record at home, it caused the music business collective apoplexy. I recall the message on the inner sleeves of many albums that reminded us that "home taping is killing music - and it's illegal". So even making a tape copy of an LP, to play in your car, was technically illegal. Perhaps you recall the campaign logo: a silhouette of cassette (that looks like a skull) with crossed bones underneath. In the music industry's head, we should have purchased the pre-recorded cassette for use in the car, even though we already had the LP.

The reality of course, was that the music industry was going to have a hard time enforcing it. Nothing changed with the compact disc; making a copy was still illegal. Some countries even went so far as introducing a tape levy; an additional cost on top of the purchase price, intended (loosely) to be given to the copyright owners in payment of the "copy" you and I might make of their music. The fact that you and I might simply want to record our grandparents talking about the past never entered the music industry's head.

Along came the digital format (MP3 etc.). Hopefully, Apple won't mind me saying, but my guess is that the prime reason for not being able to copy from an iPod to iTunes was to placate the music industry. Then came selling digital copies of music online. Once that happened, it came as little surprise to me that such copies were protected against copying.

So what has changed is that the music industry (which has successfully managed to kill itself without out help) has now taken a more pragmatic approach. We can copy music into iTunes - and again onto our iPod etc. although legally, if we copy a CD into iTunes, we need to keep the CD copy. If we sell the CD, while keeping our digital copy, we break copyright law. Apple no longer use copy protection, but technically, it is still illegal to make copies of any digital music you buy - except for reasonable backups and for use on portable players. In other words, we can make a backup copy of our music.

I hope this goes some way to explaining why you find yourself in this position.