EMI said Thursday that its copy-protected music CDs would soon play on Apple iPods, but the maker of the best-selling portable player denied that was the case.

Copy-protected CDs are the industry's latest move towards combating music piracy, however the technology employed often makes discs only compatible with Windows-based computers and players. The industry has attempted to push Apple to support Windows Media DRM on the iPod, but to no avail.

The record label claims that Apple was close to completing the work needed to make EMI's DRM compatible with the iPod. "This is an important step for EMI and Apple, but even more so for music consumers who will soon be able to legitimately port music from protected discs they own to the iPod," EMI said in a statement.

The public statement led Apple to take the unusual step of disputing EMI's claims. Normally, the secretive Cupertino company ignores requests to comment on industry news that Apple itself is not generating.

"The information EMI provided regarding iTunes and iPod compatibility with Macrovision's technology is not true and we have no idea why EMI made this statement," Apple retorted.

Thursday's comments by EMI followed statements made by the label on Wednesday saying it expected Apple to acquiesce to its demands over variable pricing in iTunes within a year.

The issue of copyright protection on CDs has become more controversial since the discovery of a rootkit installed by discs from EMI competitor Sony BMG, who used technology from First 4 Internet. The company quickly reversed its stance after public pressure and will exchange discs for protection-free versions. It is unclear whether Sony will use another method to protect its CDs in the future, although it has released some albums with copyright protection created by SunnComm.

EMI claims that its version of copyright protection differs from that which Sony uses. No hidden files or software are installed on the computer.

Users can rip EMI CDs once, and transfer an album to compatible MP3 players or burn it to a blank CD three times. Each individual track can be burned to CD up to seven times. But the technology relies on Windows Media DRM, which is not supported through iTunes.