[Via Yahoo News]

Notice anything missing from the Nokia Music Store launched yesterday? How about Madonna? According to the Wall Street Journal, Warner Music Group -- yeah, that guy -- is withholding their goods due to concerns with copyright abuse at Nokia. No, not with Nokia's Music Store but with their seemingly unrelated MOSH (MObile SHaring) file-sharing service. The other three majors -- Universal, Sony BMG, and EMI -- are all playing nice, however. A Nokia spokesman confirmed the absence stating, "we are hopeful that Warner will be part of Nokia Music Store in the future." Who knew that Madonna could be used like a big stick?

It looks like AllofMP3 founder Denis Kvasov will be evading any time in the gulag, at least for the moment. If you'll recall, EMI, Universal, and Warner Music filed suits against the highly dubious MP3-portal's founder after launching a whirlwind attack resulting in Mastercard and Visa pulling their services for the Russian-based site, and the eventual collapse of the pretty-much-illegal download service. The suit sought damages from the "entrepreneur" to the tune of 15 million rubles (about $590,700 US), but according to reports, a Cheryomushky District Court judge threw out the case against Kvasov, stating that a legal loophole allowing AllofMP3's particular kind of online music distribution continued through 2006 -- one year after Kvasov left the company. Of course, two more cases are pending against the mogul, so it seems likely we'll be hearing a lot more on this in the coming days and weeks.

While EMI might be giving the concept of DRM-free online music sales a bit of thought, it doesn't sound like Warner Music is digging the idea in the slightest. "We advocate the continued use of DRM," said CEO Edgar Bronfman during the Q&A portion of an earnings conference call on Thursday. "The notion that music does not deserve the same protection as software, film, video games or other intellectual property, simply because there is an unprotected legacy product in the physical world, is completely without logic or merit." Edgar apparently couldn't be troubled to spell out exactly what's illogical by the stance espoused by Steve Jobs in his open letter to the industry, but he did decry Steve's method itself: "Frankly, manifestos in advance of those discussions is counter-productive." Wait, does that mean that you were considering getting rid of DRM, but Jobs ruined it all with a whiny letter? Or do you mean that because of his actions you're going to slap your tracks with even more cumbersome DRM just to teach us what happens when people attempt to dissent? We're so confused.

We'd probably have to take our shoes off to count all the physical formats that have been released in hopes of supplanting the J-Pop indie rock CDs on our shelf, but Warner Music Group is going to give it another go. Their new "DVD album" (not quite as exciting of a name as those SACDs or DualDiscs, but look how they turned out) features stereo and surround sound mixes of the album, along with a whole bunch extras like ringtones, remixes, photos and video footage. The real kicker is that Warner is supposedly close to a deal with Apple that will allow them to bundle pre-ripped iTunes versions of the tracks. Those in the know are saying that Apple will probably create the tracks and then ship 'em to Warner for placement on the DVDs, since Apple is loathe to license their DRM tech. We're not completely sure how the tracks can be tied to a single computer if they aren't bought straight off the iTunes Music Store, but we're sure they'll figure out something.

[Via iLounge]

Looks like this is shaping up to be a good week for Apple and their digital music business -- after the French government effectively eviscerated the iPod DRM bill, it was reported that EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner Music have all renewed their contracts to sell music on the iTunes Music Store at the standard, flat $0.99 per track rate (that was supposedly settled on before), instead of that yucko variable pricing scheme that would have had consumers paying more for new music, and less for older tracks. It basically sounds like Jobs himself reigns victorious over putting these music execs in their place and bending them his will, but who knows how long he'll be able to stave off their pricing tactics. Something eventually has to give between the irresistable force that is the record labels and the immovable object that is iTunes; who knows how it'll all play out when this new contract is up (whenever that is).