EMI, Universal and Warner have all made the move to offer their catalogs in the DRM-free MP3 music format. In the ailing DRM camp, SonyBMG is the lone ranger, but has made a curious maneuver:

Attention iPod users:

Our download service provides files in the WMA music format or the WMV video format, which is not supported by Apple Macintosh computers. To use your music with an iPod, simply follow the steps below:

1. Save each downloaded song to your PC
2. Burn a music CD (in CDA file format)
3. Import the music from the CD into iTunes
4. Update your iPod

Now the jaw-dropper: Sony’s music is encoded with Microsoft’s WMA10 and WMA11 DRM schema. By burning the content to CD and ripping it back to the iPod with iTunes, the DRM has just been circumvented.

WELL THEN.