Yesterday, I received an email about the Johnson iTunes Settlement, a class-action lawsuit against Apple. There's so much wrong with this legalized extortion; it's difficult to know where to begin. Unlike Hollywood and the big record companies, Apple has always hated DRM (Digital Rights Managament) software. I don't know their specific reasons, but I'd bet it boils down to the following: DRM aggravates the consumer, undermines the user experience, and doesn't stop piracy. For the most part, annoying paying customers has been DRM's only accomplishment; Apple wanted it gone. In 2009, they were finally able to get the studios to agree. In exchange for providing DRM-free content, the record labels would be granted price-flexibility, something they had wanted since the iTunes store was introduced. After the change, no songs would have DRM and record labels would be able to set the price for each song at $0.69, $0.99, or $1.29.