How To Remove DRM from iTunes AAC Files
I could be wrong, but I think many people don’t realize how easy it is to romove digital rights management (DRM) from songs downloaded from iTunes. While it is extremely difficult (if not virtually impossisble) to strip the DRM code out of an iTunes mp3 manually, fortunately that isn’t the only way around the problem. All you have to do is burn an audio cd of the songs and then import the newly burned cd back into iTunes. The newly created songs will be free of DRM and you can play them on virtually any computer or mp3 player. If you burn an entire iTunes album, iTunes will even recognize the album and label the tracks for you! The only disadvantage is that the quality of your files will be slightly degraded from the original pristine files. To some this is a big issue, but I would wager that 99.9% of the population couldn’t tell a difference. I suppose this method falls into a gray legal area because the DRM free files can be easily shared with friends. My personal opinion is that DRM is a desperate last attempt by the music industry to salvage some income after the digital revolution rendered them obsolete. I read a great analysis on [Daring Fireball](http://daringfireball.net/2006/06/drm_interoperability) that sums up the absurdity of the music industries insistence on both interoperability and DRM quite nicely:
“The music industry’s insistence upon DRM is what put the ITMS in the position that Apple now enjoys; the record industry is decrying a lock-in advantage that they themselves handed to Apple so they could deny their customers (i.e. us, the people who listen to music) the interoperability they now say they want.”
As absurd as DRM has become, it seems that it is here to stay, and that is ok. If it weren’t for DRM, Apple wouldn’t be able to have the catalog of music that it has. I hope this little trick to remove DRM is helpful to some of you. Use it responsibly!
