AfterDawn: News

Dutch agency files complaint against iTunes

A dutch consumer protection agency, Consumentenbond, has announced that it has filed a formal complaint with the Dutch antitrust watchdog NMa. The group claims it wants an investigation into the "illegal practices" of Apple's iTunes music service. "What we want from Apple is that they remove the limitations that prevent you from playing a song you download from iTunes on any player other than an iPod," spokesman Ewald van Kouwen said.

"When you buy a music CD it doesn't play only on players made by Panasonic. People who download a song from iTunes shouldn't be bound to an iPod for the rest of their lives." he added. The consumer group said it was inspired by the actions of the Norwegian Ombudsman, who gave iTunes until the end of September to fix its DRM problems or face legal action.



A spokesperson for Apple said the company is "aware of the concerns we've heard from several agencies in Europe." He added: "Apple hopes that European governments will encourage a competitive environment that lets innovation thrive."

Source:
The Hollywood Reporter

Written by: James Delahunty @ 26 Jan 2007 18:21

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• 9 comments

• The_Fiend

  I get the feeling Apple isn't going to budge, but hey, who in their right mind would want to put that low bitrate iTunes cr@p on anything other than an iPood anyway ?
  Hell, why bother if you have Bittorrent, Usenet, and used cd stores ? :-D

  26.1.2007 23:36 #1

• DarkJello

  Can they go after a vidoe game company for having a game that only works on a playstation? I'm all for removal of DRM, but I feel like they arn't making the right case all the time.

  27.1.2007 05:34 #2

• tefarko

  I don´t own an iPod (I have good MP3 and MP4 players that work great...) so I am curious: can you put any song on it or just those bought from iTunes?...

  27.1.2007 05:53 #3

• PeaInAPod

  I thinks all these lawsuits are ridiculous. Does anyone else remember the announcement by DoubleTwist Ventures/ "DVD" Jon a while ago? They developed a software "wrapper" of sorts that allowed music bought from the iTunes Music Store to be bought on any mp3 player available. The competeting (spelling?) could license this technology from DoubleTwist Ventures and presto! Music bought from the iTunes Music Store would now work with their mp3 players! Problem solved.

  27.1.2007 07:48 #4

• SakuSan

  Can you just burn the songs you get from itunes and then put it somewhere else? If you can do that then why are people complaining (excuse spelling).

  28.1.2007 08:16 #5

• PeaInAPod

  Quote:Can you just burn the songs you get from itunes and then put it somewhere else? If you can do that then why are people complaining (excuse spelling). Because you shouldn't have to do that.

  28.1.2007 13:31 #6

• solarf

  exactly and thats the whole point. We should not have to do that after we pay for the music. good point PeaInAPod

  30.1.2007 07:05 #7

• PeaInAPod

  First we buy the mp3 player, and then we find out that we can only download music from that companies online store to use on the mp3 player we just bought, because of DRM. So then we buy blank CD's to burn and rip the music too, we just wasted more money, time, and lost some quality in the music file. But no biggie right? I mean who doesn't have enough free time to burn all their songs? But the DRM "keeps piracy down" so its okay that we waste our time and our money. And when you buy yourself a streaming media box (ex. Slingbox, and items like it) unless it supports the DRM in the music file that media your trying to stream can't be streamed because the DRM on the songs you downloaded wont let you. Wouldnt be a problem if there was no DRM.
  
  *Me personally I download the music from bittorrent or borrow the cd from a friend if I like it I buy it. You download a song from iTunes and are restricted to 3 or 4 pc's to play it on. I get a CD and I am guarenteed it will work in any cd player from the last 20-30 years and that I can do whatever I want with it.
  
  In my opinion its about sometime someone took a stab at Apple and iTunes Music Store/the iPod.

  30.1.2007 12:46 #8

• moviegram

  SakuSan and PeaInAPod; you both have good points... Isn't it a good idea to back up your downloaded music anyway in case the hard drive you save your music on dies? So... once it is backed up put it where you want.

  3.2.2007 07:28 #9