Ears On

Are you a fan of Norah Jones? If so, you may be looking to download "Thinking About You," her new single. Best place to go is Yahoo, where you can buy it in the latest, coolest codec ever: MP3! Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can buy the track from iTunes. But if you do, it will be wrapped in FairPlay, Apple's brand of digital rights management (yuck, tooey). Wouldn't you rather pay the same to Yahoo, and enjoy the following advantages of DRM-free downloads, so helpfully enumerated by Yahoo? Oooh, talk DRM-less to me:

They play on any MP3 player, including an iPod®.

You can burn an unlimited number of CDs.

They work with any WindowsMedia® compatible players. Certain small, mobile, intelligent download services already sell their entire catalogues in DRM-free codecs, both lossy and lossless. Backtracking to Norah Jones, what's interesting is that Yahoo talked EMI into offering a download of a major artist with no strings attached. This may be the first hint that paid downloads may not wear DRM shackles forever.