The music industry continues its war on fair use by supporting a bill mandating copyright protection technology in all digital devices, but a CNN Headline News article today reports on an exception to the rule in the contentious battle between the record companies and the tech industry. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Apple has found middle ground with the iPod.

Referring to footnotes in Apple ads urging users "Donit Steal Music," Hilary Rosen, RIAA chairman and CEO said (from the CNN article):

"Apple is definitely one of the computer makers that cares about the legitimate music market and has spent time and resources working with the record labels on online music delivery systems," said Hilary Rosen.

"As part of one of their recent campaigns, they clearly asked consumers to inot steal music.i Iim convinced they want fans to enjoy music online in a legitimate way and have invested previous resources to make that a reality."

Steve Jobs backed up this concept:

"We love music, and we absolutely believe that people shouldnit steal music," Jobs said in a recent interview. "But we also believe that if they buy it, they should have rights to put that music on their computers, to burn CDs and to put it on their portable music players. You know, people equate burning CDs with theft. Most of the time itis not. Burning CDs means you want custom compilations."

There is more information in the full article, and we strongly recommend it as a good read (note that the link may change as CNN rotates news).