In what is being described as the "end of the DRM era" Sony's music division has decided to drop DRM from their music tracks — somewhat.

While the details are still to come, sources close to Sony are saying that at least some of Sony's music will be available for download sans digital rights management (DRM). The move is expected to come in the first quarter of 2008, and makes Sony the last of the major labels to drop DRM. Warner Music announced its move away from DRM in December, while EMI and Vivendi have been offering their selections without DRM since earlier in 2007.

The move shows significant progress on Sony's part, given that not too long ago, they were in trouble for embedding rootkits on their CDs that secretly installed themselves on user's PCs.

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