Warner Music has signed a deal with 7digital.com to sell its entire catalog DRM-free in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Spain and France. What's 7digital, you ask? An online music store that's not Apple's iTunes, which seems to be Warner's only requirement in a partner these days. [Crave]

Sony may be prepared to throw away copy-protection software on some of its music in early 2008, but that doesn't mean it's freed all its tunes. That's why, in the meantime, it has supplied a helpful guide for any iPod owners who'd like to circumvent the restrictions on Sony's protected Windows Media song files. It's the age-old trick of burning a CD and ripping it. This has more to do with the ubiquitousness of Apple's iPod and Sony's complete lack of MP3 player market share than any actual regrets about using copy protection, we suspect.

They were going to CHANGE EVERYTHING. Whoops. presenting five biggest technology disappointments of the past year. No, not Vista and the Kindle — you didn't expect anything there.

Ian Rogers, general manager of Yahoo Music, told music execs it's time to quit whining, grow up, and get rid of digital rights management — the copy-protection software that's the bane of music listeners everywhere. In a deliciously ranty presentation, Rogers explains how record labels forced Yahoo Music to build an annoying music software client to ensure the industry stayed in control of the music. Yahoo, says Rogers, won't put up with DRM's inconvenience anymore. Rogers says he'd rather quit the digital-music business than keep frustrating his users. "I personally don't have any more time to give and can't bear to see any more money spent on pathetic attempts for control instead of building consumer value." Ah, there's the keyword: "value." Is this really a high-minded protest — or an artful negotiating tactic to counter labels' demands to boost prices on DRM-free music?

Wal-Mart cut a deal with Universal Music Group and EMI to sell digital songs without digital rights management software, or DRM. They're also rolling back prices to 94 cents a track. The end result for Apple? Increased iPod sales, we bet, since the MP3-format tracks are compatible with its music player. [PaidContent]

When Google employees admit error, they're so abject that it almost takes the fun out of things. Almost. The company is now admitting that it botched the shutdown, earlier this month, of a Google Video service that let customers buy or rent videos. With a vast array of free clips on Google's YouTube site, Google product managers realized there was little incentive to pay for videos. But it erred, Google Video product manager Bindu Reddy now writes on the Google Blog, by offering only two weeks notice, giving customers a mere Google Checkout credit instead of a complete refund, and rendering the videos, protected by software, unplayable. Now Google is extending its video support and offering a full refund. Users also get to keep the Google Checkout credit. Who says money can't buy love? Not Valleywag, surely.

Just because you can do something doesn't make it right. On the one hand, Universal Music is dropping digital-rights management — what we used to call copy-protection software — from its online music library. On the other hand, it's suing online-video site Veoh for violating the same copyrights it's no longer protecting. A contradiction from Universal's earlier stance that iPods are full of "stolen music"? Not at all. The legitimate complaint people have had with DRM software is that it goes farther than U.S. copyright law does in restricting what people can do with music they've paid for. UMG is joining rival label EMI in selling music without the protection afforded by software code. But the rights enshrined in our legal code? They still remain in force. Copier beware.

Setting aside the weirdness of this supposedly real image used to illustrate the story, a Jupiter Research report from December-January found little support for DRM among European music execs. The data is marginally interesting, as it presaged Steve Jobs's "Thoughts on Music" thing. But without seeing the full data ($750, anyone?) you can't really tell which kinds of execs said what. A few breakout stats are worth examining.

Rumors are flyin' that EMI, one of the "big four" record labels that use Apple's DRM copy protection to license their music through iTunes, may be dropping DRM requirements — possibly announcing as early as today. Supposedly, EMI had actually been negotiating this point for weeks, "[b]ut on Thursday, those negotiations slowed dramatically." That would no doubt be a result of massive, frantic pressure from the other labels after Steve Jobs's "Thoughts on Music" anti-DRM barnstorming. Speculation about the other labels caving is premature to say the least.Universal just forked out plenty of money to Microsoft for protected airplay on the Zune; Sony BMG is so fanatically anti-pirate that they got burned for invading users' own computers with copy-protection software; and Warner's Edgar Bronfman is already on record as calling Jobs's ideas "without logic or merit." EMI's in the worst shape of the big four, and so has the least to lose by dropping DRM. But its competitors are going to be leaning very hard on the struggling label in order to maintain that united front, at least in the short term.

Other than putting a public-consciousness ki-bosh on his stock options scandal, Steve Jobs's "Thoughts on Music" marks a strange departure — and not because he's turning against DRM. This is the New Steve, and free music aside, it's something of an off-putting change.

DRM music copy protection bad! Steve Jobs good! Steve Jobs God! Really, you don't need to know any more than that about Jobs's inescapable black hole of linkbait, but go read it again. Run your fingers through its hair. Nestle under its arm, in that perfect spot where you fit so well. Mold your body to its perfect physique. Then take a deep breath and plunge into the reaction, which follows this pattern:

The Microsoft e-mail below isn't juicy in itself — that's why we put it below the fold. But the big red "Confidential" meant we just had to share this memo warning licensees that Windows Media DRM had been cracked. Again. They have teams working on it "around the clock" — staying up all night to save YOU from the nasty pirates!

• Animal Magazine editors sneak into Apple's 24-hour store without waiting in line. Then they pull the classy move of setting its website as the test computers' home page. They also confirm that the SNL staff shouldn't head out without makeup. [Animal Magazine via Blogebrity]

The tip of the inverted pyramid becomes Techdirt's lede when the Wall Street Journal tacks this onto a Google Video piece: