Well, sports fans, we've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that Apple has released iTunes 4.0.1, which "includes a number of performance and network access enhancements"-- not the least of which are apparent fixes for the weird sound-fading and "muffled music" bugs, according to MacFixIt. The bad news is that, well, Apple has released iTunes 4.0.1-- which, as pointed out by faithful viewer Jonathan Claydon, also "only allows music sharing between computers using iTunes 4.0.1 or later on a local network (in the same subnet)," which, granted, prevents one form of rampant music piracy, but also negated some perfectly innocent uses of wide-area streaming-- such as being able to listen to your home iTunes library while you're chained to your desk at work.

Now, from Apple's perspective, this is actually a win-win update; that lousy sound bug is more than likely responsible for most, if not all, of the reviews of the iTunes Music Store in which reviewers likened the sound quality of 128 kbps AAC as roughly that of taping a song on a Fisher-Price Tuff Stuff Tape Recorder while opening a can of soup with a tree-shredder. And the success of the iTunes Music Store depends largely on Apple's ability to persuade the recording industry to continue licensing songs into a fairly lenient digital format; songs purchased from the iTMS are far less restrictive than digital songs distributed elsewhere, but it won't be that way for long if it looks like Apple is distributing a means for piracy.

Interestingly enough, according to CNET, Apple never intended iTunes's sharing feature to be used across the Internet in the first place: "Rendezvous music sharing... has been used by some in ways that have surprised and disappointed us." Apparently whether or not sharing music constitutes Being Naughty™ is largely a function of distance; Apple claims that the feature was designed "to allow friends and family to easily stream their music between computers at home or in a small group setting." Sharing the same music with the same friends and family while they're at work or off at college, however, is evidently a mortal sin.

Nah, we're just kiddin'; that's probably fine, too-- but thanks to those who abused that ability, it's no longer an option. So those of you who were using the Internet sharing feature of iTunes 4.0 for a legitimate purpose are boned, done in by the same selfish mentality that killed the "Pump First" gas station. But hey, there are always going to be people who ruin things for the rest of us, and look on the bright side: now you can listen to your tunes without worrying that they're going to sound like you've got Cheez Whiz packed into your aural canals. And who knows? The Internet sharing feature might return in some form someday. After all, "Pump First" gas stations are making a comeback.