I agree with you there. DRM does restrict what you can and can’t do with iTunes content, but like you said, it’s the labels that want more DRM; and Apple says it wants no DRM, but who knows if that’s just a PR ploy.

My iPod of full of songs from CDs, and even a bit of Amazon stuff, but I do use iTunes the most because, like the reporter said, I get the most out of my iPod with iTunes.

Under the reporters definition of monopoly, wouldn’t .mac also be considered a monopolistic feature? I mean, you have to pay $99 to get the most out of your mac, and Apple is the only avenue for those features…

I agree completely. iTunes is in no way monopolizing the market, because it is very simple and easy to buy songs from other places and simply drag and drop them into iTunes.

The only place where that becomes complicated is with DRM – and that’s the music studios fault – not Apple, and it’s a problem that ALL digital music providers have to face.

If record labels would drop the DRM it would be easier for all the music players out there…it’s not an Apple issue.

Well duh! Apple makes the device, and Apple’s service is going to make the best service it can for that device. I can put any standard song or video file on my iPod, there is nothing keeping me from getting my content from somewhere else and putting it on my iPod (unless that other service has a unique DRM, but that’s a whole other topic). The point is that I’m not restricted to using iTunes to buy content for my iPod. Therefore, I wouldn’t say that iTunes is monopolizing the market – at least in the sense that the reporter was talking about.