EU Not Interested In Pushing Legal Case At iTunes

[MacRumors]

According to Reuters, the European Union's consumer chief Meglena Kuneva is softening her stance on Apple's iTunes-iPod ecosystem. Recently, she had been quoted as comparing Apple's store with CD's, and the lack of transportability of Apple's tracks to other devices meant "something has to change."

The comments had sparked some fears that the EU was interested in pursuing legal action to force Apple to change its policies. However, Kuneva clarified that that is not the case.

Meglena Kuneva told a news conference there was no reason to talk about legal action against the U.S. computer and technology company and that she merely wanted to raise questions.

"I would like, really, to start this debate. What is best to develop this market and to have more consumers enjoying this really very important, very modern way of downloading and enjoying the music?" she said of Apple's iTunes.

Several European nations and consumer groups have been pressuring Apple to allow iTunes purchases to be playable on portable media players other than Apple's iPod.

[MacVault]

Forget opening up fairplay... Just do away altogether with the f---ing DRM and everything will be great! Did jobs write that letter a while back just to make his customers think he's on our side? Come on, Jobs, if anyone can stron arm the labels you can! Put your money where your mouth is, Mr Jobs!

[OwlsAndApples]

CDs all the way still for me. However, if Apple did let 'foreign' music players use iTunes it may benefit everyone. BTW isn't it possible to use some thrid-party software to get round this. (Although I guess that's not the point)

[roland.g]

I don't know why so many people want to be able to play iTunes content on other players, when most of them are inferior to the iPod. It just works. Look at how well it's doing. Is it really because of the store? I doubt it. It's because they released iTunes for Windows.

[acearchie]

so apples in the free . . .?

[crees!]

What is best to develop this market and to have more consumers enjoying this really very important, very modern way of downloading and enjoying the music?"

I guess more people just need to purchase from iTS and maybe buy an iPod to listen on the go

[Yvan256]

Why not force Microsoft to make Windows games compatible with both Mac OS X and all the Linux distros?

I know, I know. Music files and games are two extremely different things. But the differences between the two DRM systems (Fairplay and Plays For Sure) are more similar to the differences between, say, Open GL and Direct X.

[marchhare]

Who are the new Apple lawyers? Getting the "iPhone" ok, getting Apple Corps on board, now this... If only they can work their magic on the SEC and we'll be all good!

[twoodcc]

well i guess this is kinda good news....hopefully no lawsuit will come of this

[BornAgainMac]

Originally Posted by marchhare

Who are the new Apple lawyers? Getting the "iPhone" ok, getting Apple Corps on board, now this... If only they can work their magic on the SEC and we'll be all good!

They are busy looking at the rumors on Macrumors. Looking for someone to disclose a secret or something. It is a full time job checking all the discussion boards.

[TheBobcat]

Good analogy on DirectX. Maybe the Euros should force MS to open up their stuff too, instead of just not packing in Windows Media Player (which I assume probably comes in as an "Automatic Update" like how IE once again infested by system after uninstalling it twice).

In all honesty, I really don't see what significant damage opening up FairPlay could really do. I mean, Apple claims that it is under the gun by the labels if FairPlay gets cracked, but at this point, the music companies would have to be retarded to dump the number one legal music download source. Albeit, intelligence and music labels have yet to rendezvous.

All it could mean is more saturation for iTunes. People like the iPod for more reasons than the fact its the only thing to play iTMS downloads on. That's proven by the fact that most iPod owners don't have too much from the iTMS on it, if anything at all.

But iTunes offers more than its alternatives. For those that don't want self-destructing music files, or subscriptions, or to convert their money into Microsoft Points (shudder), it is a great music store with a great selection. Apple could proliferate more in that arena.

[k2k koos]

I think it is a healthy thing to get a debate going , but it shouldn't be Apple only, it's the record companies that need a good review on their demands on how to distribute music, both to Apple and others that run a pay download service.
It would be nice to be able to play your music on any device you want, pretty much as a CD can play in players of various manufacturers.
However, this will mean not only Apple has to open up it's store to all players, but all other services too. Music downloaded from Microsoft will have to play on an iPod, and iTunes music on a Zune for instance.

This will get some healthy competition going , players going head to head etc.
iPods are currently still the best in my opinion (my personal needs are more than covered), but competition can't be a bad thing if it means the iPod will evolve in an even better player. I for one would like the audio circuitry to be overhauled and have a lower distortion, clearer , high end headphone/line output on these, there are players out there that sound a little better, but the iPod wins hands down on ease of use and design.

In the end, the consumer wins, and if Apple is proactive, it will keep it's lead in this field by a large margin.

[shigzeo]

sure about good to get rid of drm, but unfortunately the wrong people are pursuing this. format is one thing, but the drm about music especially is another.

i cannot imagine buying a cd which also is supposedly drm and have it play on only my sony machine since sony owns the record lable or on my marantz as it is a only for marantz. gaming is different, as it is meant to play on only one machine, but our music world is tightening its grip around us till soon perhaps not one itunes, but only work on one ipod.

before this digital scare, you could bring tapes, vinyls and cd's over to someones house and listen, now you have to bring your ipod and use your dock to connect. you are not bringing a matter of 50$ of music with you, but your music which you purchases for at least 50$, plus your player for 400$. the system as it stands now is ludicrous and unfair and has nothing to do with socialism... that made no sense at all

[Westside guy]

Originally Posted by TheBobcat

Maybe the Euros should force MS to open up their stuff too, instead of just not packing in Windows Media Player ...

Maybe they should force Microsoft to at least make it's own DRM compatible with all Windows Media players...

Speaking more seriously - I suspect a lot of these regulators, not being particularly computer savvy, haven't wrapped their minds around the fact that Microsoft does this to a far greater degree than Apple. After all, everyone runs Windows already, don't they? So that means there's no lock-in when it comes to Microsoft...

[shelterpaw]

One thing I can't stand about DRM is having to burn my tracks to a ReWrite disc and rip them back into my computer. I use Ableton to DJ and DRM is an obstacle I could do without. I've bought less music from iTunes and primarily go to small independent music stores because of it.

[TheBobcat]

Originally Posted by Westside guy

Speaking more seriously - I suspect a lot of these regulators, not being particularly computer savvy, haven't wrapped their minds around the fact that Microsoft does this to a far greater degree than Apple. After all, everyone runs Windows already, don't they? So that means there's no lock-in when it comes to Microsoft...

I've met people who didn't realize that you could use a computer without using Windows. I'm sure a lot of these government officials are in that boat as well. I don't know about Europe, but we still have Ted Stevens.

"One of my ugh...people sent me an internet....and it...ugh...took 3 days to get here.....because...well...ugh the Internet....was clogged because you can't just dump on the Internet."

[TheBobcat]

Originally Posted by TheBobcat

because you can't just dump on the Internet."

Really? But I see Germans do it all the time!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

[NAG]

Originally Posted by MacVault

Forget opening up fairplay... Just do away altogether with the f---ing DRM and everything will be great! Did jobs write that letter a while back just to make his customers think he's on our side? Come on, Jobs, if anyone can stron arm the labels you can! Put your money where your mouth is, Mr Jobs!

Because god forbid the consumer put their money where their mouth is.

[darwen]

Originally Posted by MacVault

Forget opening up fairplay... Just do away altogether with the f---ing DRM and everything will be great!

ditto. I dont get why everyone is pissing their pants over this. It is simple, stop trying to capitalize off the mess the music industry is in and just start helping the consumer.

I dont buy CDs because most of the songs are usually crap. I dont download from iTunes because I am not able to do what I please with the files. There isnt an easy way to get music... I thought having all of these sources was supposed to make things easy! Just fix the mess! Stop blaming companies!

It is their fault, but blaming them is not going to fix it. Apple create an mp3 player, naturally they want to have people buy it. They think: lets make it easy to get music and only make it work on our technology! (I am oversimplifying this but you get the picture) Therefore they are capitalizing off the music industry. Indeed this is a problem but as Jobs has already stated Apple wants to work with the industry to solve this. Will anyone just let him do that?

Originally Posted by MacVault

Did jobs write that letter a while back just to make his customers think he's on our side? Come on, Jobs, if anyone can stron arm the labels you can! Put your money where your mouth is, Mr Jobs!

I dont know if I agree with that though....

[MacVault]

Originally Posted by NAG

Because god forbid the consumer put their money where their mouth is.

I do now - I buy DRM-less CDs at WalMart and rip them into iTunes rather than buy on iTunes. And when/if iTunes drops the DRM I will be much happier cuz I won't have to drive to WalMart and breathe all the germs as a walk to the back of their stores.

I promise I am at least one consumer who will put their money where their mouth is. No doubt about it!

The EU should be going after the music labels to force them to NOT REQUIRE DRM. Apple/iTunes is not REALLY going to fix the main problem.

[Maccus Aurelius]

I don't see what the big deal is. When I started purchasing iTunes music back in 2005 I was still using a 256MB Sony player to go biking with. But as a pretty quick workaround I burned my tracks to disc and then ripped them into Sonicstage and loaded them onto my player no problem. None of this took very long, and I then had a permanent non-DRM'd copy of my iTunes purchase.

I don't believe that Apple should actually open the software itself to sync with every player under the sun as it would an iPod. I have a very strong feeling that this would prove detrimental and it would make for a very buggy interface, then people would complain to apple that their Cowon, Archos or those knock-off nano clones aren't syncing properly and it's all their fault.

Instead it would be cool to have a sort of transferral client that can select which specific software you're porting the music to and determine the particular player hooking into that interface so the transition is smoother. It would have to also convert the codec since many players don't support Apple's.

[freediverdude]

Sorry, but the music companies can't have it both ways. They started selling cd's way back when with no DRM, and still do for the most part. Those cd's can be shared on a torrent program just as easily as songs purchased online if they had no DRM. So what's it gonna be, music companies?? Either you have to lock down both physical cd's and music files purchased online, all with a DRM that's going to work on all players, or you have to get rid of DRM. Or a possible third choice, of every music company partnering with a specific cd maker or online store and have their songs only play on those devices. Which wouldn't work because then people won't be able to have all the music they like on one device. But they can't have it both ways, with cd's open and music files sold online closed, because that's discriminating against the people who purchase the online files, as well as the fact it doesn't really protect the songs- because people can either A.) burn and re-rip to get rid of the DRM, or B.) buy the CD and load it right into the torrent site of their choosing. So, music companies, what's your decision? Are you going to add DRM to cd's, or get rid of DRM? It's your choice, because you opened pandora's box when you first started selling cd's without it. You can only sue so many people and rack up so much in legal fees before you realize it's a lost cause. You're going to have to make a choice, and make it soon. Good luck.

[Maccus Aurelius]

The ridiculous pricing of many CD's is what really drives me away. I buy my music online because for the most part I can buy individual tracks. Of course some may argue that .99 cents is too high for one song, it's a hell of a lot better than paying almost $20 for a CD containing maybe one or three songs that you like out of twelve. For sheer convenience I believe that people who were already paying for their music would still do so if the music online was DRM free, so I don't see why it's so restrictive. With software like tunebite DRM is a joke, not to mention the humongous hole that iTunes CD burning puts in the whole restriction management scheme. Many many people would still get legitimate copies of music quite simply because it guarantees consistent quality and more consistent active sources, unlike peer to peer networking which can depend on the popularity of the file and or availability of sources in general.

[mdriftmeyer]

24/96 lossless recordings on CDs are large files in portables and drastically reduces the total tracks stored claim for any player. My CD player is a dumb device and very simple. I don't spend my days walking around with earbuds in my ears. In the car it's nice to have the kit and switch between collections, but even then I want high quality recordings. Most people don't care, obviously.

[Copland]

I really don't think apple should open up iTunes to other players.

For some reason, the analogy that is coming to mind for me is Mac OS on generic PCs. One of the reasons Macs rule is that apple has close control over what their operating systems will run on. Same with iTunes: they have control over what the content can be put on, so the support for the device is much better.