i bought a few tracks off itunes, but i can't burn them to cd because they're protected. any advice? thanks.

Protected how? If you have iTunes installed it should let you burn an audio CD straight from iTues. At least that's what I've done before.

I've used a recording program like SoundForge, TotalRecorder, etc, and set it up so that the record source is the sound card. Then, play the song in iTunes and record it real time as a .wav file. Then you can do whatever the hell you want with it. Just make sure and keep an eye on the levels while you record so it's not too loud or too quiet.