Crusaders against Digital Rights Management (DRM) believe the practice does nothing to curtail music piracy while placing unnecessary restrictions on downloaded audio content. In a move that should please the anti-DRM contingent, EMI has announced that it will remove the restriction from its tracks on iTunes.

A consortium of record labels which include Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group have filed suit against Alibaba, which is an operator affiliated with Yahoo China, alleging copyright infringement by the site. The announcement comes as record labels, along with the RIAA, are cracking down harder than ever on digital music piracy.

It’s been an up and down week for digital music aficionados, and it’s only Tuesday.

You have to like a business model that is pure supply and demand.

Earlier this week, U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher and John Doolittle introduced the Freedom And Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007 (FAIR USE Act) for consideration in Congress. Mere days after its initial announcement, the bill is already being targeted for suppression by control-hungry content organizations.

The technology YouTube has in mind to detect and filter content will be a bad deal for the studios, and Microsoft has quietly asked powerful Hollywood honchos to skip it in favor of another option.

Earlier this month, rumors began swirling around EMI’s supposed efforts to extend the olive branch to online music retailers by considering the prospect of making the company’s audio catalog available in a non-DRM hindered format.

Steve Jobs created a stir earlier this month when he published his anti-DRM open letter to the music industry. A majority of the music industry viewed the letter as a threat to their income. Independent US labels felt they were left out of the conversations entirely, since they currently sell music without DRM.

Earlier this week, Steve Jobs wrote an open letter in which he criticized the major record labels for demanding stringent copy-protection technology that limits the flexibility of the music to be played across different device platforms.

Representatives from Warner have rebuffed Jobs’ assertion that the elimination of DRM would bolster the online music market, citing potential privacy concerns.

EMI, however, is rumored to be looking at ways to unlock the DRM on its musical catalogue.

Apple has been the object of much ire concerning the encoding of its

Earlier this week, Baidu announced a partnership with EMI to bring streaming music to Chinese users by implementing an advertising supported free digital music network. There are other companies eager to take this sort of approach, but the major record labels are reluctant to embrace such practices.

Consumer groups from France and Germany have joined a European coalition aimed at forcing Apple to make files downloaded from its iTunes music store compatible with digital music players manufactured by competing companies.

Tech.co.uk is reporting that Apple will announce this week that it is opening up it’s Fairplay DRM so that it may be licensed by device manufacturers who are members of the “Made for iPod” group of manufacturers.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology is a method of content protection that can limit the use of content to specific platforms, devices or other such methods as deemed by the content manufacturer. The practice has been widely scrutinized as of late, specifically in terms of digital music.

Digital Rights Management (DRM) has been a topic of much buzz and speculation throughout the blogosphere over the past several months. With the advent of rival content providers offering music in non-DRM formats, the practice seems to be standing on its last legs.