…Okay, now that I have your attention, DRM, or Digital Rights Management, is basically a method of electronically limiting what can be done with a computer file. For example, a regular MP3 can be listened to, copied, or burned to a CD without any restrictions. An MP3 that has some kind of DRM applied might let you copy the song to one mp3 player but not burn it to a CD, for example. DRM is used by record companies to curb “illegal” file-sharing by making it more difficult to move those files around.

Apple’s iTunes music service, arguably the first successful implementation of an online music store, allows users to download music from their store on a song-by-song basis. Each song costs .99 and there is a pretty resaonable variety to choose from. The songs don’t come as straight mp3s. Instead they are saved in a native iTunes format that has DRM applied to it. Apple’s iPod can play these files and they can be transferred to five different computers, you may also burn an unlimited number of music CDs . These are fairly loose DRm resrictions as far as these things go. However, they are restrictions all the same.

A well-known DRM hacker has done some footwork with a few other people and has released a program called PyMusique which provides an alternate “front-end” to iTunes. The key feature of this new front-end is that it allows the user to pay for and download a song from the iTunes Music Store in the normal way. However, the final step that is usually performed by iTunes, adding an account-specific DRM protocol, is simply ommitted. The result is that users are able to purchase music from iTunes with no restrictions on that use.

So far, I have been semi-supportive of Apple because they are attempting to create an online pay-music service that actually works and doesn’t screw all of their customers. But, I am of the belief that any type of DRM limits the legal right that users have to the content that they buy. Until some company can convince the RIAA that DRM-free music will actually sell MORE, I can’t be 100% on-board.

A newspost on engadget.com has a good description of the situation. Comment number “8″ also has some good points on the subject.

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