In EMI-ITunes Deal, the Big Loser May Be Microsoft

Apple and EMI have announced a deal to do away with DRM anti-piracy technology on digital downloads, although consumers have to pay an extra 20p per single. The Guardian says the move is "seen as an admission that the troubled music industry had misjudged its approach to piracy". Wired, meanwhile, sees EMI's choice of AAC audio compression tech as "of equal significance". This shift looks bad for Microsoft, it says, which backed an alternative tech - WMA - for its Zune player: "Apple and EMI's embrace of AAC spells an unlikely defeat for Microsoft at the hands of a technology that consumers didn't really use until Jobs got his hands on it."