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March 25th, 2010 @ The Royal Garden Hotel, London
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iTunes exclusivity violates Norwegian trade law
Apple’s iTunes digital rights management contract terms are in breach of the Norwegian Marketing Control Act, according to consumer Ombudsman Bjorn Erik Thon, who has submitted the case to Norway’s Market Council.
“It's a consumer's right to transfer and play digital content bought and downloaded from the Internet to the music device he himself chooses to use,” said Thon when filing the motion. “iTunes makes this impossible or at least difficult, and hence, they act in breach of Norwegian law.”
Apple had until Monday to issue a response to the decision, however the reply failed to satisfy the Norwegian authorities:
“We have received an answer from iTunes, but it was an answer that didn't add anything of substance,” commented Thon. “We will now continue what we have done so far, prepare to bring the case before the Market Council.”
The Market Council is likely to make a decision in summer 2009 after collecting materials and hearing oral arguments and their ruling could set a precedent for the European Union as a whole.
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“I'm quite optimistic that if we win this case, the European Union will have a look at this and make this EU policy," said Thon
Source: PC Advisor, MacWorld
It's the recording companies that insist on DRM being implemented on iTunes downloads not Apple. Apple would love to sell iTunes downloads free from DRM. See open letter from Steve Jobs here re DRM. http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/" onclick="window.open ( this.href ); return false;" class="comment_url" >http://www.apple.c...usic/
Norway's Market Council should be going after the recording industry instead of wasting public money trying to force Apple into doing something it would like to do but can't because of rules put in place by the music industry.
If you purchase a song on Plays for Sure it will not play on an iPod or a Creative MP3 player because it lacks Microsofts DRM.
Does the Market Council have a method of preventing piracy? Has Microsoft been able to come up with a compelling music store solution in 3 - 4 years - Sales have shown "No". Unless we want to go back to multiple CD's, there is no way of getting music that plays everywhere because of MUSIC COMPANIES.
So, Norway doesn't play well with others.
Time for Apple to leave that country. As costs go, leaving isn't a high one. The bottom line is Apple still adheres to the DRM policy because of their contracts with the music industry corporations. The Norwegian law provides no relief for preventing piracy, and therefore is hypocritical in its enforcement. It's a no-win situation. The law is not "progressive", just stupid.
Norway's stand is not rational. There is no way that Apple can satisfy their interpretation of the law. Therefore, if Apple decides to stay in Norway they should charge a very high per song fee to cover the DRM requirements which they really have no control over. Then tag the songs such that they can be tracked back to the Norwegian user for future music industry legal action should the downloaded music show up on more than one device. That would meet the rediculous Norway Way and piss off every user in Norway. Perhaps they would then have a little talk with the idiots in their government.
The problem is that they're misreading the law. The law MIGHT say that it's illegal to tie iTunes and the iPod together (whether that law is completely absurd is, of course, another story). The guy filing the case says "it's impossible, or at least difficult" to use itunes with another device. Sorry, pal, but the law doesn't require you to make it easy to switch to a competitor, so 'difficult' doesn't give you a case.
The situation is a no win situtation. Apple is unable to comply with the Norweign laws as they are under contractual obligation to the record companies to maintain and enforce DRM. Applie is unable to license it's DRM as in every case that a DRM has been lisenced it becomes worthless with-in a year and a new DRM must be developed (can we say $$$$$$). What Apple must do is take it to the courts, who it is hoped have more brains than our ombudsman and realize that it is the Record Companies that are at the core of the issue. Also with regard to difficult, a CD is less than 9 cents us the process is quite simple cut a non-DRM CD of the music and then load it on whatever device you choose; and if you are so anally retentive and have hearing that compares to that of a dog you shouldn't be able to tell the difference between 144bsp and 128bps. To Ombudsman get a life, as what others are seeing is governmental bodies using large cash rich companies to support their failing economies in these times with no regard for the consumer. BTW I personally view DRM as being useless in that a person could buy the music once cut a NON-DRM CD then wipe the orignal tune out, re-load the NON-DRM (keeping it in MP3 format) and then they would have bypassed all DRM installed Duh! To all those who want to change this, stop buying CD's and downloading tunes, in protest to the Music Labels, until they remove DRM requirements from their music.
