Apple’s iTunes ringtone policy
It’s naive to blame Apple for anything involving iTunes’ pricing or DRM. It’s all from the publishers.
Apple isn’t charging for ringtones and restricting their access because they feel like selling more tracks… it’s because the record labels make a killing on ringtones (which usually cost $3 from anyone else and don’t include the “normal” version), and if Apple would allow people to put any songs they wanted on there for free, the RIAA members would lose a big revenue stream.
The more interesting question is what portion of that extra 99 cents is going to AT&T.