It’s that damn DRM. Yesterday Cathy’s computer gets this message:
Some of the items in the iTunes library, including "Rough Boy", were not copied to the iPod "Pavlov" because you are not authorized to play them on this computer.
Then it goes on to list a whole bunch of songs…basically anything she has ever purchased through iTunes. (Blingo has been good to her!) Oh, it also removed the tunes from the actual device. I am sure this has something to do with Sarah or Tommy plugging their iPods into Mom’s computer. How do families with multiple iPods but only one computer get their music?
DRM sucks. Even Bill Gates says DRM stinks. (see also)
[Biill Gate’s] short term advice: "People should just buy a cd and rip it. You are legal then." [Source]
So, my next step will be a long, arduous customer service fight with Apple (oh the bad karma and wasted time!). Simultaneously I suppose I will research how to cripple DRM since, frankly, Cathy is being hassled for legitimately buying music and that doesn’t fly with me.
Update: Some resources that look like they will be helpful. Mark’s(we)blog and one digital life (showing a backup procedure for your tunes).
Update: The solution was actually pretty simple. 1) Logged out of Sarah’s iTunes login. 2) Logged into Cathy’s iTunes login. 3) Under the iTunes->Store menu choose "Authorize this computer." Done.
I went through this last week, after getting about 7 gigs of m4p’s from Katie’s computer. I didn’t have the problem you’re having because we don’t have ipods, but I can’t play them on my cheapo mp3 player, etc.
Here’s a couple of blab links about it, one where I asked and one where someone else asked:
http://funhouserock.com/funhouse/blab/showthread.php?t=6279&highlight=captivating+tech+thread+title
http://funhouserock.com/funhouse/blab/showthread.php?t=6350
The only multiple file conversion tool I found that gets rid of the DRM is myfairtunes. It’s what came after hymn when it stopped working. But I can’t get it to work, either. So if you have luck with it, let me know.
I’ll keep you updated. I didn’t think about converting m4p to mp3. I have a tool that will do that in bulk. I wonder if sound quality suffers and if DRM gets removed in the process.
That’s the only way I knew to do it. That’s the beauty of myfairtunes, if you could get it to work: it doesn’t affect sound quality.
If you could convert to mp3 with your program, that would get rid of the issue you’re having. It might not sanitize it – ie it might still say itunes and your email, etc – but it would play anywhere. You can’t restrict mp3’s. But it seems like you could sanitize it with an id3 tool. But I don’t really know that much about it. And like you said, there’s the sound quality issue.