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Apple Inc. is now selling the vast majority of its digital songs without copy-protection software.

The maker of the iPod also announced Tuesday a deal to roll out variable pricing on songs from the iTunes Music Store, with prices between $0.76 and $1.29 U.S. .

Apple announced the changes at the Macworld Expo trade show in San Francisco Tuesday.

Copy-protection software, also known as digital-rights management or DRM, has proved a controversial topic with music fans and record labels alike. Eight million of iTunes s 10 million songs will be available without DRM.

The software was designed to prevent fans from illegally sharing digital downloads on file-sharing services. But it also prevented many fans from moving their own songs between devices and became increasingly unpopular.

Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, publicly called on major record labels to drop DRM in February, 2007.

In exchange, labels have been asking that iTunes agree to sell songs at variable prices. Currently, iTunes sells all individual songs at 99 cents regardless of their popularity or date of release, unlike most other retail outlets.