"DVD Jon" created a program last week that would let you buy music from the iTunes music store that was not encumbered with what is euphemistically titled "Digital Rights Management" (DRM). With the software that he wrote, one could buy music that wasn't restricted by Apple's rules. Normally the iTunes purchase process involves you paying for the music, iTunes downloading an unencumbered track, and then adding DRM to the track. Norwegian teenager Jon Johansen's software does away with the last step.

Huzzah! I say.

Apple didn't like this, because they want to own the WHOLE PIE of online music sales, and they've had to sell out our fair use rights to the music labels to do it. Allowing unencumbered use of music pisses off the labels. So they blocked Jon's program, and restricted access to the iTunes music store to iTunes 4.7.1, which supposedly had more advanced encryption.

Jon announced today that he's found a way around that restriction too, in a blog post titled "So Sue Me."

The irony of this is comes from the story behind a sound effect that has come with the Mac since it first supported sound. Apple was sued for trademark infringement by Apple Music (The Beatles' label) back when it started, and an agreement was reached where Apple would not get into the Music business.

Several years down the line, Apple started putting sound hardware into the Macintosh. The company's youthful spirit at the time led to the addition of a sound called "sosumi." It still exists in OS X. Go into System Preferences (in the apple menu) and click on Sound, then Sound Effects. Scroll down to sosumi and click on it. Notice the satisfying musical "Doh!" sound?

Coincidentally, you might have noticed that iTunes accesses the iTunes Music Store, not the Apple Music Store. That's because Apple Music and Apple are still at legal loggerheads.

Which is why you still can't buy music from the Beatles on Apple's site.

Sosumi.