patseguin said:
That's what I thought. So, does de-auothorizing do something to the actual files to allow them to be used on a different computer? Wouldn't I need to de-authorize BEFORE copying so that the files are modified? It wouldn't make any sense to copy the files and then de-authorize on the PC. How would the files on the iBook know that?
EDIT: robbieduncan - you are the man! Thanks for all your help/
Actually, Benj is incorrect. iTMS songs are allowed to be played on up to 5 computers. To play a purchased song, iTunes must be authorized. Here's how I understand it.
When a song is purchased, the account that it was purchased under is embedded onto the file. For that song to be playable, the iTunes application on the computer must be authorized to the account embedded on the song. This means the computer must be connected to the Internet and the password for the account must be known.
If a computer will no longer be used for the purchased songs, you can de-authorize that computer and get one of your 5 authorizations back. Just go into one of the menus and choose de-authorize. Keep in mind, if you re-format a machine with an active authorization, you run the risk of losing that authorization. So before you reformat, back-up and de-authorize.
I hope that helps you.
EDIT - I forgot to answer the other question. You can de-authorize
either before or after transferring the songs. Doesn't matter as the files don't hold the authorization.
Also keep in mind that if you just copy over the song files, you will lose all of your playlists, song counts, ratings, etc. The easiest thing to do would be to copy the entire "iTunes Library" folder over to the new Mac. All of the necessary files will be copied along.