by Playfuls Staff |
10th June 2006
Apple is again under legal fire in Europe because of DRM technologies used on its iTunes store. According to media reports, the governments in in Norway, Denmark and Sweden all want Apple to lift restrictions that prevent songs sold on iTunes being played on devices [more] made by other companies.
Already in Norway, the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman decided that the iTunes breaks consumer protection law. “The complaint is based on iTunes’ standard terms and conditions as specified at http://www.apple.com/no/support/itunes/legal/terms.html (Terms of Service) and http://www.apple.com/no/support/itunes/legal/policies.html Terms of Sale). It is the view of the Consumer Council that several aspects of these terms are in breach of the Marketing Control Act (Markedsføringsloven) and other legislation.
In addition, iTunes uses DRM (Digital Rights Management), a type of technical standard terms and conditions, which determine how the service can be used. The Consumer Council of Norway also believes that certain aspects of the technical terms and conditions are in breach of the Marketing Control Act.”, said The Norwegian Consumer Concil in an official statement.
If Apple will ignore this decision, the company will first face heavy fines which would then be followed by court action.
Also Sweden officials have expressed a similar position. "iTunes' terms and conditions are illegal in all three countries," Swedish Consumer Agency spokesperson Marianne Aabyhammar told AFP.
Apple have to deal with the same issues in Britain, where BPI officials (British Phonographic Industry) told Parliament that iTunes music should be able to be played on other music devices. The British competition authorities had opened already an investigation about the pricing scheme on iTunes. On the British iTunes, a song is sold for 99 pence, which means $1.82, while in France the price of a tune is 99 euro cents, or $1.25.
The problems for Apple in Europe have begun earlier this year when France threatened to pass a law forcing the company to make iTunes tracks compatible with all devices. After Apple called the law state-sponsored piracy and have threatened that will close its iTunes store in France, the French senate softened the law. The French senate has added language to the bill so that a company that agrees to provide its proprietary codes to rivals will receive a license fee along with guarantees that the transfer of information will not weaken its copyright protection measures.
iTunes Store was launched initially to promote iPod player, but in three years Apple has managed to transform into the biggest online music download service. In February this year, Apple has celebrated the 1 billionth download from iTunes. According to Nielsen NetRatings, a provider of Internet media and market research, traffic to Apple's iTunes Web site and use of the iTunes application has spectacularly increased with 241 percent over the past year, from 6.1 million unique visitors in December 2004 to 20.7 million in December 2005, reaching nearly 14 percent of the active Internet population.
