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FT.com / Companies / IT - Norway declares Apple’s iTunes illegal

“We are satisfied the Federation of German Consumer Organisations and the French UFC Que Choisir are addressing this important issue. It means that iTunes is now being told by more than 100m European consumers to offer them a fair deal,” he said.Apple signalled that it would fight efforts in Norway and elsewhere in Europe to prise open the iTunes service, though it struck a more conciliatory tone than early last year when it attacked a proposed French law as “state-sponsored piracy”.

Apple is once again taking its love slaps from Europeans who hate the iTunes Store’s DRM policy. Apple’s statements that such an act is “state-sponsored piracy” are merely rhetoric designed to demonize any effort to reform digital rights laws. These laws currently allow Apple to lock people into playing Apple-sold content on Apple software and Apple hardware. Unfortunately these policies have managed to succeed on the consumer level. If I can think of one reason, it’s because people don’t really care about the ins and outs of the restrictions, they just want to be able to download music and take it with them on the bus/in the car/etc.

Almost 100 years ago the ICC, the SEC and other bodies built up by the US Government protected consumers against bizarre, non-competitive acts by corporations that would infringe on the true competitive nature of capitalism. Now, in the digital age, these laws need to be revamped in a manner that benefits consumers, then artists, THEN labels.

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