As “iPhone euphoria” slowly wears off, replaced with sobering reality, some of iPhone’s less shiny aspects are beginning to come into view. Wilmington North Corolina’s StarNews (I didn’t know they had newspapers in NC. Wonder if they have internets as well ) pointed out the unfairness of Apple’s FairPlay digital rights management (DRM) technology which locks users into Apple’s walled garden by limiting playback of songs purchased through the iTunes Store only on Apple authorized hardware. Since Apple doesn’t license FairPlay to any other vendor, that means you can only listen to these legally purchased tracks on an iPod, or iPhone in this case.Needless to say a good many users, and competitors to Apple, are not happy with this arrangement. Some are seeking legal recourse, accusing Apple of being a monopoly.

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