Napster Goes DRM Free (So Everything Old is New Again)

The original music download service, Napster is casting away the Digital Rights Management restrictions from the music they sell. Six million different songs are now available as unrestricted MP3 files which are just like the files that the original Napster helped people distribute way back in the day.

Napster is one of the growing number of online music stores that are now selling songs without DRM. The major labels are easing off the restrictions on what consumers could do with purchased songs partly to open up the market dominated by Apple's iTunes. While it's highly unlikely that the labels want a price war that would give consumers lower prices, they don't want Apple to be the gatekeeper between the labels and consumers.

It's great to see that despite the head planted in rear end thinking of the RIAA, Music bogged down with DRM restrictions is on it's way to becoming a thing of the past.