On the one hand, you make a good point, that it's the RIAA not Apple that's to blame. On the other hand, there are services like emusic.com that are entirely DRM free. Emusic only has indie stuff, but actually, I've been surprised at how much good stuff they do have. It's not everything I want, but there is a fair amount of peripheral stuff. I'm thinking of signing up soon.
by Carl — Jan 16