Do you own songs bought online? Well, sort of (Reuters)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Like millions around the world,you have an iPod, the market-leading digital music player madeby Apple Computer Inc. and have spent perhaps a few hundreddollars buying songs from the company's iTunes music store.

But do you really own the tunes? Whether you do, however,depends on how you define ownership.

"Owning implies control and if you bought the tracks oniTunes you don't have complete control," said Rob Enderle,president of market researcher the Enderle Group.

Those songs you bought online from Apple play just fine, ofcourse, so long you do so on the company's iTunes digitaljukebox software, on an iPod, burn a CD (you can only burn thesame "playlist," or collection of songs, seven times), orstream them wirelessly to your stereo using another Applegizmo.

But Apple's FairPlay digital rights management, or DRM,software prevents you from listening to those purchased songson a music player from Dell Inc., Creative, Sony, or others.The same thing goes for songs you've imported to your computerfrom CDs you already own.

The DRM software is Apple's way of preventing piracy and isa large part of the reason why the recording industry has sowarmly embraced the iTunes Music Store.

"A lot of people would argue it's the closest thing you'regoing to get other than buying a CD," said analyst Mike McGuireof market research firm Gartner of the restrictions Apple andothers place on music bought online.

To be sure, Apple rivals have their own DRM technology toprotect against piracy, such as Sony Corp (NYSE: - ). and Microsoft Corp.,but none have been as successful so far as Apple. TheCupertino, California-based company has a 70-percent marketshare in the United States for digital music players, andhigher than that for music purchased online.

Beyond just having songs you bought from iTunes "trapped"on the iPod and in iTunes, it's also not a snap to move songsfrom an iPod - whether you bought them or initially pulled themoff a CD - back up to a computer. While it's possible to do so,Apple doesn't make it easy, right off the bat, because it'strying to discourage piracy.

"They do it to lock you in," Enderle said, noting anexample of if you spent $500 on buying songs from iTunes. "Younow have a $500 switching cost to pull out of iTunes."

But there are a number of different and perfectly legalreasons why you'd want to be able to do that.

For example, your computer suffers a disastrous crash, youlose data that includes your music library, and you want torecover your lost music library from your iPod and return it toyour now-repaired computer.

There are programs that let you move songs from the iPod,up to a computer - such as Senuti and PodWorks - but, for theaverage user, it may be more than he or she is up for. Thereare some ways around companies' DRM technology, but those arefar trickier to use and Microsoft and others frequently plugholes in their software to prevent converting DRM-protectedsongs into unprotected MP3 files.

As for how complicated it is to get around DRM protection,consider this quote from a Website: "Microsoft's DRM isactually, for a change, really well thought out. The XMLcontent header at the top of every protected WMA file justcan't be changed because it's digitally signed using either ECCor RSA. The same thing goes for the actual license files andcorresponding keys."

That's language that is probably not readily understood bythe average consumer.

"The average consumer hasn't run into the restrictions"that the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Sony have placed ononline music purchases, McGuire said. "Certainly there's someinterest in Apple wanting people to return to the iTunes storebut these restrictions are really due to the rights holders andthe labels."

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