Antinous said: If they're in their twenties and they look that bad, I'm not sure that further punishment is warranted.

I suspect you're correct in your evaluation of them, but I must interject that if you've ever had the unfortunate experience of being thrown in jail, you understand that they can pretty much make anyone look like a hardened criminal and/or bad specimen of humanity by the time they get around to taking your mugshot.

Could be the Grim Reaper rather than the Virgin Mary. Maybe it is trying to tell them something.....

Steve Stair,

You are correct to an extent. They want to be able to charge you more than 99 cents per song and Apple is not agreeing to let them do that thru the iTunes store. In making the announcement a Warner VP said, "We believe that giving consumers the assurance that the music they purchase can be played on any device they own will only encourage more sales of music."

However as Wired's Gadget Lab points out, "Welcome to 2007, (Warner Bros). Just about every tech blog has been banging that drum since DRM was invented. Now all you need to do is realize that you can sell your music through many different outlets and make more money. Playing resellers off against each other has one pretty transparent purpose: Greedy price fixing.

If "[c]onsumers want flexibility" and you "want them to have that flexibility" as you say, why not sell via iTunes, or eMusic, or any number of stores wanting to push protection free music?"

Cory: "If Apple doesn't control the labels, then how come when the labels asked for variable pricing, the iTunes store didn't deliver it?"

This sort of hyperbole around these hot issues continues to trouble me. It doesn't lend itself to a rational, informed discussion. If Apple really controls the labels then why aren't Universal and Warner making their DRM-free tracks available on iTunes? Didn't Jobs say that's what Apple would prefer? In fact, it appears that when Amazon began selling DRM-free tracks at 89-99 cents each, Apple was "forced" to drop the price on the EMI DRM-free tracks that they sell. Pretty lousy control if you ask me.

Saying Apple controls the labels is akin to those who say because of iTunes DRM, Apple locks you into their iPods. With over 1,000 songs on my iPod, not one of them is "tied" to it since I've never bought a DRM-encumbered song from iTunes or anywhere else.