I-Tunes technical question: How to play AAC format files in other players?

[Brotherjohn]

Could anyone who uses I-Tunes regularly help?

I think you can only download songs from I-Tunes in Advanced Audio Coding, or AAC, format.

These files are license-protected, and I think they are not playable by other digital audio players... at least I know I can't play them in Windows Media Player (or burn CDs of them without using I-Tunes).

This seems to be a drawback in the longterm, as you would be forever limited to using I-Tunes and I-Pods to play your song collection (although I'm sure that's Apple's plan).

IS THERE a way to play and record them in other players? Is there a way to disable this protection such as setting I-Tunes to download in "unprotected" AAC format?

Thanks in advance!:)