iTunes illegal in Norway

January 25th, 2007

bwahahahahahahaha! :howler:

Apple was dealt a blow in Europe on Wednesday when Norway’s powerful consumer ombudsman ruled that its iTunes online music store was illegal because it did not allow downloaded songs to be played on rival technology companies’ devices.

The decision is the first time any jurisdiction has concluded iTunes breaks its consumer protection laws and could prompt other European countries to review the situation.

The ombudsman has set a deadline of October 1 for the Apple to make its codes available to other technology companies so that it abides by Norwegian law. If it fails to do so, it will be taken to court, fined and eventually closed down.

So says the Financial Times. I am greatly amused by this, because it's no surprise at all. The issue was raised a long time ago, and there has been a lot of back and forth with the authorities. Apple would not budge and so it was bound to come to this eventually. It's poetic that Apple's strong arm tactics have failed completely.

Technology pundits are saying the writing is on the wall for DRM, I'm not so sure myself. But this is a nice and clear sign that some actually do take offense to consumer rights being trampled on. Countries where the government isn't in the pocket of the industry perhaps (or at least not to that extent)?

Bring it on, Europe!

:: random entries in this category ::

2 Responses to "iTunes illegal in Norway"

  1. erik says:

    Shame Norway isn't in the EU, they could make this an official union wide complaint. Fingers crossed Brussels hears of it regardless

  2. John Healy says:

    I'm delighted to see this happen. There's a general election here in Ireland in about six months, so I'll be mentioning Norway's example to people going door to door - finally, a concrete example of a country (other than France: no one takes France seriously) standing up for customer's rights.