A rock musician has expressed anger at digital rights management (DRM) technology after hearing complaints from fans who are having difficulty importing his group's songs to programs like iTunes.

Speaking on a music forum, Tim Foreman, bassist with San Diego rock band Switchfoot, wrote: "My heart is heavy with this whole copy-protection thing.

"We were horrified when we first heard about the new copy-protection policy that is being implemented by most major labels, including Sony (our own label), and immediately looked into all our options for removing this from our new album.

"Unfortunately, this is the new policy for all new major releases from these record companies. It is heartbreaking to see our blood, sweat and tears over the past two years blurred by the confusion and frustration surrounding this new technology.

"It is also unfortunate when bands such as ourselves, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, etc. are the target of this criticism, when there is no possible way to avoid this new industry policy."

Foreman then went on to provide details of how to crack the digital rights protection.

He justified his actions saying: "We refuse to allow corporate policy to taint the family we've developed together.

"We deeply regret that there exists the need for any of our listeners to spend more than 30 seconds importing our music, but we're asking as friends and partners in this journey together to spend the extra 10 minutes that it takes to import these songs."

John Buckman, founder of music download service Magnatune, said: "Users do not want DRM so I am not surprised that a band is doing this.

"Music sales are sold by the four majors and not many bands are actually in favour of DRM because it stops you ripping CDs and is implemented in a range of ways by the online music sellers like iTunes.

"Advising fans to get round the technology could be a bit risky. It is a crime in the US to subvert DRM and therefore it may be a crime to incite people to do so."

The title of Switchfoot's latest album, Nothing is Sound, seems strangely prescient.