Steve Jobs, Napster nemesis

Bloggers, take note: No less august a personage than Apple Computer's Steve Jobs may be your biggest fan.

According to sources at major record labels, Jobs himself sent top music executives a link to a blog explaining how to turn copy-protected songs from Apple rival Napster into unprotected, freely burnable music files. The story rippled through label circles Tuesday, as executives tried to understand whether any actual damage had been done to the service.

Jobs has been deeply critical of subscription services like Napster and RealNetworks' Rhapsody, saying that people want to own their music, rather than "rent" it. Both Napster and Rhapsody provide listeners with access to an unlimited number of songs, but that access ends once a subscriber stops paying monthly fees.

Apple's iTunes has had plenty of its own trouble with the hacking class. Independent programmers have figured out ways to strip copy-protection from songs purchased at the iTunes store, and have turned the iTunes software into something that looks very much like a local-network file-sharing tool.

There was no immediate comment from Apple on the blog missive.