iTunes - limiting to CD playback only?

MacMuppet

MacMuppet

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Hi guys

Rolling out X to the plebs soon, and don't want to run around sorting out .mp3 issues, but it has been decided that they can play CDs. Obviously a freeware 3rd party media player would do the job, and we could just remove iTunes, but I would rather they used a legacy app that I am using so can support well if need be.
Can you limit iTunes to CD playback only?
Yes I suppose you could write a script to delete the library on shut down but that won't be popular, and we'd rather people were just, you know, working rather than constantly messing about with their personal soundtrack.

Are there som changes or some cheeky Terminal tricks I can try to achive this with iTunes or would you go with a 3rd party application?
 
Can you change the permissions on the itunes music library to 'read only' or 'no access'. That way they can still play CDs through iTunes but can't rip/download etc. and add to the library.

Just an idea
 
Yes I suppose we could do that, it seems the easiest way of just preventing the user from adding .mp3s to the machine - but they'll still see the 'Import' button.
I suppose after few months it'll settle down and people will get used to it, but I was hoping to avoid saying "because I say so" to the hundred people a day who ask why they can't import their music, not to mention the helpdesk calls saying iTunes is 'broken' because it won't let them import.
Thanks though - its why I asked the question, just can't see any way to achive it really - I suppose you'd have to re-write iTunes basically, as what I want to do goes against what iTunes is for - its always been about having your own music library on your own machine hasnt it....
 
Look for a small freeware CD player, and set it to autolaunch on audio cd insertion.
 
Hehe the plebs, reminds me of Fawlty Towers ("The Builders")...

Anyway, I would presume a more pressing problem would be people re-burning music onto CDs (and downloading, killing your bandwidth). You can prevent them burning in System Preferences, Users.

As for iTunes, I had a look around to see if you could, say, remove the icon from the nib file of the app but guess what, iTunes has no nibs...still a Carbon app, which means (almost) all the preferences are garbled binary data, so we won't be able to change much there either. Take a look at ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist for an idea.

So, after looking around a bit, I can't find any terminal tricks to prevent importation. I'd leave iTunes on the computers and just deny them access to it (also in Users).
 
Thanks Michael - yes I'd given up on removing the button.
Its been decided not to bundle iTunes on the standard image, and only provide it for those who give a valid business reason.
iTunes library will not be backed up or ported to new machines, and iTunes will not be supported at all - they break it they lose it.
Not so worried about copyright, their music is in their Home directory, (obviously we keep the root password to ourselves) so no-one will be able to copy it....
 
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