Recent updates (courtesy of p2pnet) on the DRM-free music war raging between Steve Jobs and the record-company giants reveal that Mr. Jobs is turning a blind eye towards the fact that Apple seems to have been caught operating an obviously two-faced strategy. Promoting themselves as anti-DRM on one front, and collecting user data in the new $1.30 iTunes downloads on the other can’t have been a wise decision in any way.

While iTunes users can’t do anything about the price increase, they can counter the infringement of their privacy by turning over to a new open source application that’s been built by our talented friends in France.

Dubbed Privatunes, the application was developed by the creators of Ratiatum and the innovative Matoumba news reader. The application allows iTunes users to clean their tracks, erasing the AppleID (email address) and username.

Guillaume Champeau, runner of Ratiatum claims, “We believe anyone who buys DRM-free songs online should be free to do whatever they’re legally entitled to do, including [selling it or letting] their close family or friends copy it, with no fear and no one spying over their shoulder.”

“There’s no reason to attach the name and email address of the buyer on whatever is being sold. Selling is the act of transferring a property from the owner to the buyer, and [there] should be no limit or restriction whatsoever.”

The developer further exclaims, “It’s what differentiates the so-called selling of a DRM-ed song (which is nothing other than long term rental) and the selling of a DRM-free song. It’s a question of privacy, it’s a question of seller-customer trust, [and] it’s a question of customers’ rights.”

We agree.

If you’re interested in getting a free copy of Privatunes, click here. The source code is just around the corner, and it’ll also be available on p2pnet soon.

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