Apple strips iTunes of digital rights management. Apple is offering millions of songs free of copy protection on its iTunes digital music store, allowing the music to be played on any device. The end of the last bastion of digital rights management — the anti-piracy lock and key system used by the music industry — comes after Apple finally made agreements with all the big music labels. Until now iTunes, the world’s most popular online music store, offered only a limited number of songs from the EMI label and independents. Apple has now signed deals with three of the big music labels, Warner Music Group, Sony and Universal Music Group, to sell DRM-free songs from today. In exchange Apple has agreed to a new system of tiered prices for the songs offered. In effect, hot new songs will cost more than back catalogue music, allowing the labels to make more money from new releases. — Times Online

French TV ditches prime-time ads. French viewers have for the first time watched prime-time television without advert breaks, as President Nicolas Sarkozy’s media reforms got under way. Advertising is now banned on French public television between 2000 and 0600. It will be phased out by 2011. It is part of Mr Sarkozy’s move to shake up public broadcasting. He says his plan will improve the quality of programming but critics say it is a power grab that will deprive state broadcasters of funds. — BBC

Beijing urges Google and others to ‘purify’ web of p-rn. The Chinese government broadened its recent effort to limit pornography on the Internet by criticizing 19 Internet companies by name Monday, including Google and Baidu, the providers of the two most popular search engines in the country. A statement posted by early Monday afternoon on a government-run news site said the Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies would work together “to purify the Internet’s cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors.” — International Herald Tribune

The Gray Lady shows some ankle. Forgive me if I can’t bring myself to join those expressing outrage over the New York Times’s decision to start running display ads on its own front page. Actually, strike that. Forgive me if I can’t even find anyone expressing outrage over the Times’ long-overdue move. As best as I can tell, the commentary has mainly been of the “what took them so long” variety, spiced with a bit of “when will the Washington Post follow suit?”For better or worse, the Times remains the flagship of American journalism. Weirdly enough, though, until a few years ago the Times was one of the few quality papers to run front-page ads of any kind. For instance, on Fridays the paper has often run a small classified ad from a Lubavitch group reminding “Jewish women and girls” to light Shabbat candles – an odd, charming touch, but one that contradicts any notion that the Sulzbergers kept their front page “pristine” until now, as the Journal’s Kafka suggests. — Dan Kennedy @ The Guardian

Famous fake pundit gets real book deal. Martin Eistenstadt, that fake pundit/McCain adviser who supposedly started the whole “Sarah Palin didn’t know Africa’s a continent” thing, has gotten a real life book deal. You’ll remember that Eisenstadt is, in fact, a fictitious, satirical figure, a character created by two men (Eitan Gorlin and Dan Mirvish) who did a good job of fooling people for a while with his “The Last Republican” YouTube videos and making an ass of David Shuster. People were always so ready to believe in him! Because the election was already a complete work of sci-fi fantasy. Ultimately Gorlin and Mirvish were aiming for a television show, but now that the election smoke has cleared to all but a wisp, they’ve been forced to settle for a measly old book deal. — Gawker

The 51 best magazines ever. The essential strength of a magazine is its ability to amplify. An idea, or an image, or a story, set within the pages of a magazine and assembled by the right hands, can become the grist of breakfast chatter, dinner-party conversation, or elective body debate around the world. Until recently, with the advent of USA Today and the national editions of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, newspapers were by and large local endeavors. Magazines were national, and as they became international, their power of amplification grew exponentially. A magazine — like the smart, charming gazette you hold in your hands, even in this age of electronic everything everywhere, is a marvelous invention. — GOOD