US NEWS: RIAA spokesman denies saying "DRM is dead"

Apple iTunes

A report on TorrentFreak suggested the RIAA had dramatically changed its stance on DRM for digital music, which it had previously vigorously defended.

It reported Jonathan Lamy, chief spokesperson for the RIAA, as saying "DRM is dead" in an interview for a forthcoming article in SCMagazine.

But now TorrentFreak has retracted its original report of the quote, saying Lamy actually said: "There is virtually no DRM on music anymore, at least on download services, including iTunes."

The issue of DRM on music has long been a controversial one, but support for it has been slipping, with even Apple making all music sold through iTunes DRM-free earlier this year.

Last year 7Digital went completely DRM-free. And in March Vodafone struck a deal with three of the four major record labels to scrap DRM on all its downloadable music, while Orange announced a similar deal earlier this month.