I added Maroon 5’s album to my shopping cart in the iTunes music store and was shown the alert to the right saying that I had already purchased one song from the album and asking if I was sure I wanted to purchase two copies of the song.

Well, yes. I do want to purchase two copies. It’s cheaper to buy the album for $9.99 than buying the rest of it piece-meal at $0.99.

After all, once I leagally own two copies, I can give one away, right? It is mine, bought and paid for in a totally legal way.

WRONG.

Apple’s DRM does not allow for title transfer on songs. This is why DRM is a bad idea. It prevents honest customers from using products in very natural ways.

My situation isn’t that uncommon, and will happen much more frequently as I use the iTunes music store more. I buy a song, listen to for a while, and then go back to buy the rest of the album. In some cases perhaps I will only cherry-pick those songs I think I like…or maybe I’ll just buy the whole album.

Now imagine that those hit singles that I buy I pass on to friends who in turn decide to buy the entire album and pass along that original file from me…

The current limitations are subtracting value from the music industry. Both Apple and the Labels need to change this policy to something that makes a bit more business sense.