I didn’t actually say I was opposed to any DRM (and I don’t see how I am trying to have anything both ways, as you say). But one of the problems with DRM is that someone else gets to decide whether / how I use the music for personal enjoyment. Apple’s enforcement of DRM is the reason why as an app it doesn’t serve my purposes well.

I also didn’t say that iTunes doesn’t allow sharing. But I’ve tried all of iTunes options for sharing, and none of them serve my needs. Which is why I am (very happily) now once again using the app I was on before iTunes was released.

You can’t have it both ways. Unfortunately, as you pointed out, we live in a society where music labels are government sanctioned monopolies and artists are either slaves to them or struggling to find an outlet on their own. In this society, you can break the law or you can play by the music monopolies’ terms, and Apple chose the latter course. I say good for them! They more or less dragged the labels kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and their attempts to undermine Apple are — we can hope — going to be their undoing. Between the outrage (and legal scrutiny) over Sony’s rootkit copy protection software and the current accusations of collusion among the labels to illegally fix pricing, we may finally have some lawmakers question why they allow the labels to have monopolies in the first place.

As for iTunes, I’ll grant you that its copy protection is annoying, and your scenario can be limiting. iTunes does allow sharing, though — many of us here have playlists we share over the network, which anyone can listen to. That may be the answer to your dilemma.

It’s kind of a guilty pleasure, but I can’t help it — I love reading Dave Winer when he gets on a rant (except maybe when it involves Adam Curry and the origins of podcasting). His latest is on iTunes, and having used it before with …