Only US customers benefit from DRM-free Sony
AS PREVIOUSLY predicted by the INQ, Sony BMG has decided to abandon DRM on MP3 tracks it is currently selling via the Amazon MP3 beta site. The bad news is that the service is presently restricted to US customers only.
Efforts to defeat the system and try to purchase items from outside the USA – even if you use a false address and telephone number – will fail since the service checks against your credit card number for your origin.
This MP3 service is mainly geared up for Windows and Mac users since Amazon recommends you install a special MP3 downloader that links to the Windows Media Player or Itunes.
It's unclear how well it will work with handsets accessing the system via 3G or Wi-fi, for example, although given the service's graphics, owners of Sony Ericsson Walkman handsets are amongst those being targeted as customers.
The good news is that if you download the MP3 installer correctly, Amazon offers you a free MP3 track - Energy by The Apples.
It may prove worthwhile checking this out immediately. Radiohead fans were previously able to download the latest album – In Rainbows – for free from here, but that service is no longer available. µ
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to abandon DRM report
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What if I borrow my US friends credit card number to buy a song?
"The good news is that if you download the MP3 installer correctly, ..."

What the heck is an "MP3 Installer"? I've never had to "install" an MP3. I just open them with any media player and they work.
I can't test, because I'm in the United States, but if you can't get the MP3s using a credit card from a different country, would it be possible to buy an Amazon giftcard with that same credit card for the US site under one account, and then download the MP3s with the giftcard on another?
I know people who get around the region lockout on iTunes using gift cards. I wonder if you can get around the Amazon limit the same way. 

Buy a gift card, setup a fake US account and use the gift card to buy MP3's... or do they also check your IP address.
The way around this is to load money into your PayPal account, get a 'virtual credit card' number from them for online purchases (works just like a regular credit card and the number is of the same format). Since PayPal assignes their virtual credit card numbers for online shopping from their US-based bank, they'll work to bypass Amazon's restriction. I've done it.
You advise people to install sony endorsed 'software' with its great history because they MIGHT get some free crap? Might mind you not will.
Are you being very subtly sarcastic?

Its about time they remove that kind of crap. If I know Im not going to get a root-kit I will start buying Sony media again.
bob i can see why ud like non drm content and the pirate bay has supplied this since the start. artists can make money else where, if they were a true artist the money wouldnt be the reason they made music. sniizlle.
(sorry if comment is re-posted!!!)

Amazon DRM-free MP3's: I buy them, I love them. I never pirated music, but I very rarely purchased online content because of the DRM limitations. Now that Amazon has offered this service to those of us in the US, I've finally found a way to get the music I want, how I want it, AND financially support the artist and supplier who made it all possible. Aplle's iTunes and the Pirate's Bay can sizzity-suck-it. I'm DRM/Pirate free, baby!!!