Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday suggested three possible alternatives for dealing with digital rights management (DRM) in music, including dumping the system entirely.

Jobs posted his "Thoughts on Music" in a special section on Apple's website, setting forth his views on the future of DRM - a way that the four major music labels control digital piracy and how songs licensed to be sold via Apple' iTunes can be distributed. For example, if a song with DRM is downloaded from iTunes and then posted on the internet, it won't be playable on another person's computer or media player.

But on Tuesday Jobs wrote that DRM isn't working: "Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven't worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy."

If the music industry were to heed Jobs's call to eliminate DRM, a surge in digital music sales would likely result, some say, because tracks would become more accessible on more computers and devices, prompting consumers to buy more music.

It would likely also help iTunes fend off potential rivals such as Napster, which is beginning to target mobile phone users and others who own devices that can play digital music - but not music encoded with DRM.