In the battle between armor and warhead, the warhead always wins, so goes an adage in military engineering. In the battle between media free play and digital rights management (DRM)... Honestly, we don't know. DRM tends to provoke an unsavory reaction just by talking about it.

The right of the music customer to listen to his purchased music wherever, whenever he or she wants, without unnecessary restrictions. The right of the music artist to receive the proper compensation for all his hard work on his or her music that the customer's listening to. The right of the music publishing company to be compensated for recording and marketing the music track made by the artist and enjoyed by the customer. How do you balance these three without pissing someone off?

Back to the battle between warhead and armor. Have you heard of QTFairUse6? It's based on the original QTFairUse program that would bypass or "strip" the DRM code off of a downloaded-from-iTunes music track. QTFairUse6 is an update designed to work on iTunes 6, though it's still not perfect (the current build is 2.4), and it lacks an easy-to-use GUI interface (such as its Media Player sister FairUse4WM).

There are those who would welcome software like these, which would make iTunes-downloaded music tracks playable on MP3 players which do not support DRM-protected files. In essence, they cry freedom. On the other hand, there are those who fear that denying companies like Apple or the music companies some sort of protection on their "ownership rights" over downloaded music will destroy their innovation and creativity - in short, seeing no profit in the market, they would leave the market altogether. In essence, they cry rape.

Welcome to the real face of DRM. Neither "right" nor "restriction" at the moment, only people trying to find the proper definition of "Fair Use" that will be acceptable to everyone. As it always is in economics, the market is a harsh mistress - and that's putting it mildly.