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Apple has issued some threatening statements about suing RealNetworks since it launched Harmony, the technology that lets iPod owners play tracks downloaded from Real's website, however, nothing has happened yet.

Things could be getting worse for Apple. DVD Jon, the Norwegian hacker who broke the copyright control software on DVD movies, has posted software on his blog that makes it theoretically possible to stream music over AirPort Express networks with music applications other than Apple's iTunes.

So why hasn't Apple sued Real or DVD Jon? Perhaps the Mac maker has had second thoughts about using such a contentious piece of legislation as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the US courts.

Lexmark's messy legal battle with Static Control, in which it used the DMCA to stop Static Control from making its third-party cartridge chips work

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with Lexmark printers,will not offer much encouragement to Apple. A Federal judge ruled in Lexmark's favour last year. But static has released new components it claims are not covered by the judge and has launched a counter-suit.

A US civil liberties organisation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, condemned companies using the DMCA to stymie competition: 'The DMCA is godsend for megacorps and oligopolies because they gain government-endorsed assurance of unequivocal control over the entire life cycle of their products. The ability of consumers and end users to choose different parts based on economy, performance or features will be severely limited, if not eliminated.'

Even so, the DMCA does allow some reverse engineering, so a litigious Apple might not get everything it wants. Meanwhile, Apple's reputation as a heroic underdog could disappear for good, and it could be targeted by more disgruntled hackers.

Apple's other threat to use an iPod firmware upgrade to break Real's Harmony would be simpler, but could infuriate customers. And isn't that the sort of thing that Microsoft was accused of doing to the Windows version of QuickTime and Java?

Apple is using its digital rights management software, Fairplay, to prevent customers from doing what they want with their iPods. Didn't Apple CEO Steve Jobs used to criticise record companies for doing just that when they wanted to stop people doing what they want with their music?