A few questions about iTunes

I am trying iTunes on a PC, just downlaoded a number of songs I have been looking for awhile.

I like the way the iTunes UI works, typcial Mac, easy and straightforward.

I noticed the format isn't MP3 but M4P? And Windows Media Player won't play them. Can I still burn them to CDs in stardard format.

Can I only play songs I downloaded from iTunes with iTunes?

Can I move the files directly to my other PC? Or will there be a copyright issue that will keep it from running on the other computer?

I assume you're talking about music bought from the iTunes store? You can burn them to CD's all you want using iTunes. You can play them on up to 5 different computers at once by entering your password, but I believe you have to play them using iTunes (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

Yes, if you bought them with iTunes then you have to use iTunes to play them if you just do a direct copy. iTunes doesnt care if it is the OSX or PC version, but the one you copy to will have to have internet access to check with the iTunes store to validate your ability to play them. You can only have 5 computers authenticated at a time, so if you sell or trash a computer, be sure to deauthorize it first.

Now on the other hand, if you burn the songs to a cd using iTunes, you can them import them back in on another PC as a mp3, wav files, etc just like any store bought cd so long as you burned them to the cd in iTunes and didn't just copy the mp4 files using a cd burner program like Toast. Once you burn them off to a cd, you dont have to authorize the other computer to play them nor to rip them back off. If you use iTunes to rip though, be sure to change the Importing preferences to MP3 and not AAC which is what creates Mp4 copyrighted files. Hope this helps.

edit
also note that even if you have import preferences set to MP3, anything bought from the itunes store will come in as AAC, nothing you can do about it except burn them off then reimport them back in as MP3 tp rid them of the mp4 format.

rcltrh: Thanks, that answers what I wanted to know. Cool, I like iTunes, I used real player rapshody before and it was a pain, iTunes is so much easier.

I see it burns in MP3 format, I could swear when I used iTunes before there was an option to burn in standard CD audio format or has that changed?

Hmm. Mine always burns in regular audio cd mode. Have never checked to see if it did otherwise, as I rarely ever burn anything off. Maybe an option checked somewhere?