Last week British music lovers were celebrating finally being able to buy tracks from major record labels without them being crippled by draconian antipiracy usage restrictions, writes Alex Pell. However, it also emerged that the blight of digital rights management (DRM) was being applied to a whole new area: clothing.

First, the good news. Last Tuesday, 7digital (www.7digital.com), a UK music downloads retailer, announced it had purged DRM from its catalogue of 4m songs, which includes tracks from all the leading record labels. Tunes that contain DRM can only be used on specific music players and can’t be copied. However, from now on, all of the music sold by 7digital will be in the unrestricted (albeit inferior-sounding) MP3 format.

Apple’s iTunes store already offers some DRM-free songs in Britain, while Amazon and Napster have both dumped DRM entirely for US-based consumers. And yet, just last week, a patent application by Apple was published describing how it intends to marry an electronic gadget with a specific item of clothing. Just as Apple’s DRM for music allows the tracks it sells to be played only on iPods or computers, the so-called SmartGarment technology will restrict the use of a particular device to specified garments. But precisely what uses would “digital clothing” have?

As an example, Apple - in partnership with the American sportswear giant Nike - launched the Nike+iPod Sport Kit two years ago. This comprises a sensor that slots into a recess in the sole of certain Nike running shoes, and a receiver that connects to an iPod Nano. The iPod can then display details of a runner’s performance - such as average speed and distance covered - as they jog.

However, some consumers proved to be too canny for Nike and Apple’s liking by attaching the sensor to running shoes from rival makers. Hence the two companies’ desire for some form of “rights management”.

The patent shows how Apple and Nike are working together in order to stop this sort of behaviour, and it provides a glimpse into the future of gadget-centric apparel. It outlines the manner in which SmartGarment technology would electronically pair sensors only with “authorised” clothing - most likely via a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip in the same garment. Information from the sensor could then be displayed on a paired device such as an MP3 player or mobile phone.

Apple suggests that similar sensors could be used with “authenticated garments” to monitor realtime athletic performance in such sports as cross-country skiing, inline skating and even outdoor swimming.However, both Apple and Nike have much more sophisticated ambitions than simple pedometer-style widgets such as the iPod Sport Kit - which will be upgraded early next year to include heart-rate information. Apple says it is developing newer sensors with altimeters, or even GPS, that could in theory alert runners to local points of interest, such as a restaurant.

“We’re looking at all sorts of futuristic areas,” says Simon Charlesworth, Nike Running’s marketing manager for the UK and Ireland. “We’ve only just scratched the surface. It would be great if we could develop kit that can guide you onto a better run - such as taking a prettier route.”

Apple says future generations of sensors could even notify you if a garment - such as a shoe - has worn down to the point where, say, the arch support has eroded.

However, the suspicion remains that SmartGarment is a blatant DRM system designed to control which clothes will work with which gadgets. Apple gamely tries to sell the idea on the grounds of added security, pointing out that a thief would have little reason to keep these fancy sensors if they didn’t work with their own clothing. Nevertheless, it also admits that “a manufacturer may only want garments within a certain price range to be paired with the sensor”.

In other words, you’ll probably have to buy the top-end clothes if you want these swanky features to work.

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