Norway declares Apple's iTunes illegal Thursday, January 25, 2007
In light of the Neteller post, it's ironic that Norway's consumer ombudsman has ruled iTunes illegal because it does not allow downloaded music to be played on rival company devices.
The ombudsman has set a deadline of 1 Oct for Apple to share it codes with rivals otherwise it will be fined and closed down!
Other European companies are preparing to launch simialr actions.
Again, I find this bizarre. Obviously it's great that the US gets a taste of its own medicine with overseas court imposing their jurisdiction on US firms.
However consumers have a choice when shopping with iTunes. You do so knowing that you are locking your music collection into a proprietary format, despite that data having a probable life expectancy longer than their ipod device.
It's not as though there is a shortage of music download stores.
Interesting, this precedent would also hit Microsoft with its music site & the Zune lock-in.
posted by John Wilson @ 2:55 PM Permanent Link
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