Apple to remove iTunes' copy protection

Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs discusses his company's "iTunes" product at Apple's "Let's Rock" media event in San Francisco, California September 9, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Applesaidsongs on its popular iTunes digital music service will no longer be saddled with copy-protection software.

The news was released by Apple's senior vice
president Phil Schiller who replaced CEO Steve Jobs to do Apple's presentation
Tuesday at the Macworld trade show in San Francisco.

DRM, shorthand for Digital Rights Management, is the
"protection" that is encoded into purchased digital audio files, such as songs
from iTunes.

Apple previously sold most songs for 99 cents, with
copy-protection software attached. In April, all song prices will change to one
of three tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents or 1.29 U.S. dollars.

By then, Apple expects to have removed the
copy-protection software from all its digital music. About eight million
unrestricted songs are available today.

It was likely a compromise between music companies
and Apple.

Record companies have pushed for varied pricing.
Apple faced competition from online retailer Amazon, which started selling
unrestricted music in 2007.

(Agencies)