News

Apple Responds to Norway's iTunes Claims

Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 at 8:50 AM - by

Apple has rejected claims by Norway's Consumer Council, which says that the iTunes Music Store violates the country's consumer laws by not allowing songs sold through it to play on anything other than an iPod. According to a Financial Times report, the company released a letter to Norway's Ombudsman arbitrator in which it said the practice was "not unfair."

However, the letter, large portions of which were blacked out by the company on the basis of the industrial secrets it contained, also admits that Apple "should clarify the situation in its marketing," reporters David Ibison and Tobias Buck wrote.

Torgeir Waterhouse, a senior adviser to the Norwegian Consumer Council, told the reporters: "Our position is that this is a tool to lock consumers into their products. This is just the start of a long struggle. We are at the beginning of a booming digital market and if we don't win this one then we won't be able to achieve a fair marketplace."

Apple now faces fines and the possible closure of the Scandanavian iTunes Music Store if Norway, which has the backing of Denmark and Sweden, finds it guilty of breaking the law.

6 comments from the community.

You can post your own below.

+ show options

Your current settings, click to change: Sort Oldest First, Show Guest Posts, Hide Community Stats

A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:03 am

Will I still be able to buy if I live in Minnesota?

Quote this post ↓

A guest said: (hide)

Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:08 am

Guest wrote:
Will I still be able to buy if I live in Minnesota?

Oh you betcha!

I wonder if there are sinister forces behind this Norwegian movement, someone wanting to bust up the IPods domination. Follow the money

Quote this post ↓

rpaege said:

member since 16 Dec 2005 with 88 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:13 pm

There is almost always money behind legislation. And it doesn't matter if it's in Minnesota or Norway. Whether it's sinister or not is the real question. Is it sinister to lobby government on behalf of your or your clients' interests? Maybe it's only sinister if it's also clandestine.

I'd be willing to bet that this "news" story isn't really news at all, but a clever and clandestine planted story by the money behind this effort. Who's money is it?

Quote this post ↓

A guest said: (hide)

Fri Aug 04, 2006 1:27 pm

I'm so sick of these frivolous suits. Did you hear lawsuits from Beta VCR users complaining that VHS tapes couldn't play in their VCR's??? For the most part propriatary file formats are still here but the smart companies want to be UNIVERSAL. (iTunes does play several types of audio file)

If you are sophisticated enough to buy digital media and have a digital media player you can probably figure out a way to CONVERT songs.

If not...

Buy your iTunes song and burn a CD copy in the regular CD format playable on a CD player (good idea to back up your purchase - no idea Apple will permit a replacement download from your receipt if your harddrive fails or ???). Now if you have your backup CD you can MP3 it for your player if it can't play the AAC version.

Problem solved, dry your tears people...

Quote this post ↓

A guest said: (hide)

Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:32 am

It is not possible to convert a M4p file (Itunes protected files) into MP3 without buying additional software, or hacking it.

Quote this post ↓

Intruder said:

member since 07 Jul 2004 with 3079 posts, TMO Mac Specialist, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:52 pm

Anonymous wrote:
It is not possible to convert a M4p file (Itunes protected files) into MP3 without buying additional software, or hacking it.

Untrue. Burn to CD and re-rip.

Quote this post ↓

Post Your Comments

  Remember Me

Not a member? Register now. You can post comments without logging in, but they'll show up as a "guest" post.


Please enter the word exactly as you see it in the image above. Registered users aren't prompted for this. Having trouble reading the image get a new one.