I selected it, I paid for it, and I should be able to play it on any device I please. Are you listening, Apple and Microsoft?

I broke the law last night. Unfortunately, the transgression was both unexciting and unrewarding, which might lend some credence to the hackneyed adage "Crime doesn't pay." And why should it? I was only trying to listen to digital audio files I'd legally purchased.

The law in question is the made-for-the-entertainment-industry Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which protects record labels and movie studios from piracy by controlling the way we use digital media. It's perfectly acceptable to safeguard against bootleggers, but if I pay 99 cents for a song I download from a legitimate online store, fair-use rights dictate I should be free to blast that tune from any device in my home. The DMCA, however, has other ideas.

Secure music files that you download from authorized Web sites are legit for MP3 players, but you're a lawbreaker if you stream them to a digital audio receiver.

Here's how I signed up for the orange jumpsuit. Over the past two years, I've been ripping CDs to WMA format and have also purchased a few tunes (in secure WMA format) from sites such as BuyMusic.com. About six months ago, I added a Cd3o digital audio receiver (DAR) to my stereo in the living room. This cool little device links wirelessly to my Wi-Fi-enabled PC in the bedroom, where I've stowed my collection of 100 percent legal, digital audio files. The Cd3o shuffles those tracks from the PC to the stereo, obviating the need to rummage through my fantastically messy CD pile to unearth a particular disc.

I noticed the PC wouldn't stream the files I purchased from BuyMusic.com, but that wasn't a big deal, because I'd downloaded only a handful of songs, primarily to check out the site's interface and catalog.

When Apple released iTunes for Windows, however, I finally capitulated and joined the iPod people. The iTunes software and the iPod don't recognize WMA files (thanks to format wars!), so I had to rerip all my CDs to MP3 format. Then I started downloading songs and entire albums from Apple's terrifically designed iTunes Music Store. They were delivered in secure AAC format and played fine on my PC--ditto for the iPod.

But like the WMA files, the AAC files wouldn't stream to my Cd3o. I assumed digital rights management (DRM) was the culprit, so I attempted a workaround. Using the iTunes software, I burned AAC files to an audio CD, which is perfectly legal for personal use. I then ripped the audio disc to MP3 format on my PC, which enabled the computer to stream those files to the Cd3o. Considering I'd already purchased the tracks, the investment in time and media required to stream them was both annoying and technologically retrograde.

It's a crime
Did you catch the crime? The DMCA states circumvention of technology used to protect content is illegal. So attempting to figure out a way to stream the secure AAC files I'd legally purchased officially makes me a lawbreaker.

Granted, DRM is a relatively immature concept, and new technologies all but guarantee interoperability snafus. But doesn't it seem a bit skewed that you can legally burn these files to CD, an option that's rife with piracy possibilities, but can't stream them from one room to another? What's that about?

It's all about business rationale. Companies have concentrated on making it easy to move music to devices such as the iPod because the installed user base is vastly larger than that of DARs. The same is true of devices that favor the WMA format.

"Nobody can play protected media because there is no facility to stream DRM files from the desktop PC to a device like ours," says James Scanlan, Cd3o's vice president of marketing and product development. He doesn't see a solution anytime soon. "There are ways we could get around the problem--we could pretend our connected device is part of the PC or a portable device," he says. "But with the DMCA, circumventing any protection scheme is illegal."

Which means it's up to Apple and Microsoft to resolve the issue. While Apple declines to comment on any future plans in this arena, Microsoft is more forthcoming.

A streaming fjord
By the time you read this, Microsoft will have announced technology, code-named Fjord, that will run on Windows PCs and allow users to configure their computers to share protected content with other devices. If a DAR is compliant with the technology, for instance, users can grant permission to share files, including secure WMAs, says Dennis Flanagan, product unit manager for Microsoft's media devices group.

The technology will be chipset- and OS-agnostic, but each DAR maker must implement the service on its device. Although Microsoft anticipated publishing the specs in January, Flanagan predicts it will be midyear before device makers implement the technology. Microsoft's Fjord technology won't solve my problem with secure AAC files, however, and Apple isn't discussing any possible fixes. How long will it take for the technology and entertainment industries to realize a common platform that enables fair use of digital content makes good business sense? I'd certainly be buying more music tracks online if I could use them to their fullest.