So have you blown an obscene amount of credit on songs at the iTunes Music Store over the past week, desperately trying to score a free 20 GB iPod by purchasing at just the right time? And now you've got a whole Purchased Music playlist packed full of songs you don't even want because you were trying to maximize your chances for success? Well, uh, gee, we suppose we should have mentioned this last week, but didn't you bother to read the official rules? Yes, they're kinda long and packed with legalese, as these things usually are, but you only had to get as far as Rule 1 to see what we're talking about. Legalese, shmegalese; Rule 1 is three words long and printed in all-caps just so Apple can be sure you understand: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.

Yup, certain states have laws prohibiting contests in which an initial monetary outlay is a condition of entry, presumably because it constitutes gambling or something. Whatever the reason, though, the upshot is that you can enter the 100 Million Song Countup Giveaway without buying a thing by "sending an email to Apple at itunes100@apple.com via the iTunes 'Tell a Friend' feature." See, if you'd read more, you'd have known that, and you wouldn't have a Purchased Music playlist full of Connie Francis Christmas songs right now. (Nothing against Ms. Francis, mind you; she's fabulous.)

Now, hold on there, buckaroo-- we can hear those wheels in your head turning from here, and before you hatch your brilliant evil scheme to flood Apple with free entries, you should perhaps read a little further down. Rule 4 states clearly that "the use of any automated launching or entry software or any other mechanical or electronic means that permits the entrant to automatically enter repeatedly is prohibited. Mechanically generated entries will be discarded and may result in total and permanent disqualification from the Promotion." So unless you want to be banned outright, keep those AppleScripts in your pants-- and if you've heard about the "separated by commas" method of sending multiple "Tell a Friend" messages at once, do your best to forget about it, unless you want to end up banned from the contest completely.

Oh, you don't think it can happen, do you? Then maybe you should check out this recent article at Engadget, which describes the plight of a couple of guys with an iPod jones and way too much free time on their hands. Reportedly they "entered about 3000 times with the Tell a Friend option two days ago by using the separated by commas trick" and wound up receiving a copy of Rule 4 in their inboxes from Apple, who also subsequently "banned" the mad clickers "from emailing anything @apple.com." Which is pretty harsh, when you think about it, because if it happened to you, not only would you be barred from entering the giveaway, but you'd also be unable to send your daily missives to sjobs@apple.com telling El Stevo that he'd look really good onstage in a stovepipe hat and muttonchop sideburns.

So if you're going to do the "free entry" thing, keep it legit; we suspect that getting banned by Apple from anything might seriously affect your credit rating. Enjoy!