<div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">The iTunes thing is interesting. What I don't understand is that the<br>
choice to use DRM or not was (I thought) mainly based on the record<br>
companies involved. Is Apple saying they've all agreed to this?<br>
<br>
</blockquote></div><br>The record companies didn't like how Apple controlled the whole market. So they have been withholding DRM free music rights to iTunes so that 1) they could help build up iTunes competitors 2) more importantly they wanted tiered pricing (i.e. they want to sell popular songs for more money), but Apple wouldn't allow it. This most recent deal Apple allowed tiered pricing and studios gave them DRM free music. Although I don't think Apple was at all interested in DRM free music until they felt they had a comfortable monopoly and DRM started to be an issue with the majority of consumers. <br>