Norway: open up iTunes or meet in court!

[Poff]

bad, automatic translation here. You may have to try a couple of times to get the link to work. Doesn't work the first time for me, but then I click enter in the adress field and it comes. http://www.itavisen.no

Basically, Forbrukerombudet (a Norwegian institution guarding consumer rights. Should translate to something like Consumer Representative.) demands apple open iTunes for other mp3-players within 1. of october. If not, they'll drag them to court. (or Apple will shut down the norwegian service, maybe.. )

Apple has to provide an answer to this before 1. of march. It will be interesting to see how this all goes...

Edit: Consumer Representative may also go after Zune when it comes to Norway.

 

[Counterfit]

I'm pretty sure the odds of Apple leaving Norway are much higher than them opening it up.

 

[d-fi]

another link.

http://blogs.pcworld.com/digitalworld/archives/2007/01/norway_outlaws.html
article below

Norway Outlaws iTunes


Good intentions, questionable execution. European legislators have been giving DRM considerable attention for a while, but Norway has actually gone so far as to declare that Apple's iTunes store is illegal under Norwegian law.

The crux of the issue is that the Fairplay DRM that is at the heart of the iTunes/iPod universe doesn't work with anything else, meaning that if you want access to the cast iTunes library, you have to buy an iPod. That didn't sit well with the Norwegian Consumer Council, the body that kicked the whole thing off by filing a complaint with Norway's consumer ombudsman. France and Germany have also joined in on the action. (See our earlier reports on Norway and France's ongoing debates here, here and here.)

Now, I'm not much for DRM (though I'll admit that Fairplay is comparatively liberal) and I resent theoretically having to buy an iPod in order to listen to iTunes downloads away from the computer. But as it happens millions of people don't seem to care. They have an iPod, they have iTunes, they get their music, and they're happy because the whole thing does what they want.

My use of the word "theoretically" seems to apply here. As far as I can tell, this entire case came about because of the theoretical problem of a closed system; but I wonder, how many Norwegian (or French or German) consumers were clamoring for Apple to open up iTunes?

I guess we'll find out soon enough. Apple has until October 1 to open up Fairplay to other companies, or face fines and the threat of iTunes being closed down in Norway. Since the first option is about as likely as Satan skating to work, Apple's only choice in the long run -- assuming endless legal wrangling fails -- will be to close iTunes in Norway, and possibly other European countries. I wonder how many consumers would go for that?

 

[Poff]

Norway's consumer ombudsman.

I wonder how they all come up with that silly, silly word.. ombudsman.. hehe..

 

[zim]

I just don't get it... so with this logic, my VHS tapes should work in my DVD player right? maybe that is pushing it too far... hmm... oh okay then with this logic I should be able to play Nintendo games on a Playstation or a Playstatoin on an Xbox... there we go!

Say, where were all these smarty pants people when we had issues over OS compatibility?

Just like with the French version of this complaint, they need to take it up with the record companies because they signed on to an agreement with Apple plus it is Apple's device and they should be able to do what they want with it.. no one forced them to make it and no one is forcing people to buy it.

 

[MacNut]

Nintendo and PlayStation have different formats so that argument wont work. The same with DVD and VHS. MP3 is a format and the argument is that all players should work together.

They are not fighting the iPod but the iTunes music store. The contracts the labels made was not for the iPod but the music store.

 

[Poff]

I just don't get it... so with this logic, my VHS tapes should work in my DVD player right? maybe that is pushing it too far... hmm... oh okay then with this logic I should be able to play Nintendo games on a Playstation or a Playstatoin on an Xbox... there we go!

Mno.. That would be if they forced apple to sell mp3-files. What they want, is that all devices able to play AAC-files, should be allowed to lisence fairplay. Because DRM is an artificial hindering. Other players are able to play AAC-files, but Apple encrypts their files so that those players cannot play Apples AAC-files.

The Consumer Representatives wants Apple to lisence their encryption algorithms, so that other players gain access to the AAC-files, which they can allready play.

A better analogy would be if Universal started encrypting their DVD's, and selling their own DVD-players. And not letting Sony, Phillips and so on play Universals DVD's.