Norway to sue Apple in hopes of opening up FairPlay DRM

Norway to sue Apple in hopes of opening up FairPlay DRM
Norway Consumer Ombudsman Bjorn Erik Thon, after two years of being at odds with Apple, is now bringing his case to the Norwegian Market Council, hoping the council will force the company to remove its FairPlay DRM and allow users to play back their iTunes-purchased music on players other than the iPod.

"The Ombudsman demands that the consumers themselves should be able to choose what music device they would like to use to listen to music bought from the iTunes Store,"
he said.

Thon adds that Apple uses the DRM to "dictate" what hardware the music is played back on. "As of today, the only portable players able to play files downloaded from iTunes are Apples own iPods," read his original complaint from 2006.



Since 2006 Thon admits that Apple has made some progress, but that it is not enough and Apple has until November 3rd or he will sue them.

"It's a consumer's right to transfer and play digital content bought and downloaded from the Internet to the music device he himself chooses to use,"
added Thon. "iTunes makes this impossible or at least difficult, and hence, they act in breach of Norwegian law."

Now that everybody else is DRM-free, shouldn't Apple move in that direction as well?

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 29 Sep 2008 21:46
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  • 13 comments
  • 1bonehead

    Quote:It's a consumer's right to transfer and play digital content bought and downloaded from the Internet to the music device he himself chooses to use," added Thon. "iTunes makes this impossible or at least difficult, and hence, they act in breach of Norwegian law."
    Norway finds itself with a more than a bushel of rotten "apples"

    29.9.2008 22:13 #1

  • JRude

    A show of hands...does anybody NOT know Apple DRM's it's iTunes to it's own devices? Or it's OS is only allowed on it's own hardware? Legally. If users support this crap, they get what they paid for. Apple STUFF. Apple iPods...Iphones....you name it. I don't buy it. That is my answer to proprietary DRM. Lock it up and let the customer sink the Apple core. They don't. People have a CHOICE.

    29.9.2008 22:37 #2

  • DXR88

    Or just strip the DRM out.

    i really don't know why so many people are still so technologically Arrogant To the big business Way's. ♠

    29.9.2008 23:29 #3

  • JRude

    Tweens wont strip the DRM out. They will just buy the new Dual Nano iPod with Self-destructing batteries and keep buying those iTunes! lol!

    29.9.2008 23:48 #4

  • DXR88

    Originally posted by JRude: Tweens wont strip the DRM out. They will just buy the new Dual Nano iPod with Self-destructing batteries and keep buying those iTunes! lol!No Momy Or Dady keeps buying the dumb gotta have brand name shit tween's the ipods.

    29.9.2008 23:58 #5

  • JRude

    Don't forget...when they reach 16, ya gotta buy them a CAR with an iPod dock so they can tool around and burn the GAS we're gonna run out of! ;- )

    30.9.2008 00:14 #6

  • ThePastor

    It's about time someone took Apple on with this stuff. I particularly liked the quote...
    Quote:"It's a consumer's right to transfer and play digital content bought and downloaded from the Internet to the music device he himself chooses to use,"Apple PC's have such a small market share it's almost funny, yet they play it off as if they are an actual contender with windows. I laugh at those comercials. Who cares which is better? Which one is on hundreds of millions of PC's??? or said another way:

    SCOREBOARD!

    As for the Ipod ITouch IPhone IPUKE!
    I went to Best Buy the other day to buy a small accessory for my BlackJack II phone. A phone which Best-Buy is listed as an "authorized retailer" for.
    I found several ISLES devoted to the various IPUKE devices and about 2 feet of shelf space for my phone.
    It was gross

    People deserve what they get with Apple.

    30.9.2008 14:07 #7

  • MrXenu

    I swear this against the law in pretty much every country, its called purposfully creating a monopoly.

    Frankly Apple are an overpriced company that sells overpriced products to idiotic consumers.

    The company should be put to dead, it has produced nothing useful excpet a GUI, but that was ages ago to the point when I wasn't born! Apple have a monopoly due to their DRM, this should be stopped. If M$ wanted to they could push Apple out of the PC industry by not allowing MS Office onto mac's, although M$ would be 'butt hurt' by every government because it would be creating a monopoly!

    THis is compeltly unfair and biased governments that allow such anti consumer things to happen to their inhabitance!

    Way to go norway!

    30.9.2008 17:47 #8

  • atomicxl

    Quote:"It's a consumer's right to transfer and play digital content bought and downloaded from the Internet to the music device he himself chooses to use," added Thon. "iTunes makes this impossible or at least difficult, and hence, they act in breach of Norwegian law." This guy acts like iTunes is the only online music retailer. If you hate iTunes, why don't you shop with one of their competitors rather than keep buying iTunes tracks that you damn well know are incompatible with the hardware you own?

    This is like complaining that when you buy PS3 games, they don't work in your 360. Except rather than realize that you're an idiot, you try to take Sony or MS to court.

    And why do they show the Windows version of iTunes? Its an Apple product. Does the mac version support other devices?

    1.10.2008 10:19 #9

  • panzearon

    That's my country ;)

    5.10.2008 10:17 #10

  • Tashammer

    It comes up in many and diverse forms all over the place and time and time again other people fight to stop the avalanche of greed. Call it what you will but it's just once bunch of greedy buggers trying to get the edge over another bunch of greedy buggers so that we the people whether we want to be consumers or nor are forced into becoming consumers and then are screwed even further into being screwed even more.

    And the folks who "represent" us in government, the spoiliticians, funnily enough end up helping big business, screwing the voters and gaining for themselves a whacking great pension plus numerous positions on boards that keeps the gravy rolling in.

    The trouble is that if you stay quiet and keep your mouth shut, they just stand on your face, call you a terrorist and chop away more rights whilst getting everything little last red cent they can AND these vultures are the ones who are screaming that they are the ones who have been hard done by. Lets face it business doesn't care that they lack Kulturny. Nor do they realise that they cannot buy culture either.

    What a terrific way of avoiding the development of a warm and mutually helpful species that is honest enough to have a little war now and again, a police action from time to time, because, lets face it, we, as a species are a bloodthirsty little lot.

    Hmm. How about International Social Service, National Social Service, Local Social Service of one or two years duration and in the order given. With each period served the more access to out societies we gain access to with no exemptions medical or otherwise. As a teeny weeny little matter where wealth or political pressure is brought to bear to get an offspring off their social service. Guess what we could do? Maybe instant enlisting for all the family and whoever else in the closest most bloody war. The seizing of all assets etc to be used for what, maybe community wellbeing. Oh, this would include lawyers etc who prostitute their mouths daily.

    Do we all see how this relates to DRM, good ombudsmen?


    Oh the types of social service would include civil and military, farming, take your pick from the green guides to making the planet well again. As we make other thing better we cant help but improve ourselves (whether we want to or not). But, by the same token if we do stuff day after day that also becomes a self perpetuating nasty little system. China has had some good ideas for mass civil service - have a look at the size of some of the damns and other massive physical constructions that were made primarily by manual labour.

    27.10.2008 02:27 #11

  • DXR88

    Originally posted by Tashammer: It comes up in many and diverse forms all over the place and time and time again other people fight to stop the avalanche of greed. Call it what you will but it's just once bunch of greedy buggers trying to get the edge over another bunch of greedy buggers so that we the people whether we want to be consumers or nor are forced into becoming consumers and then are screwed even further into being screwed even more.

    And the folks who "represent" us in government, the spoiliticians, funnily enough end up helping big business, screwing the voters and gaining for themselves a whacking great pension plus numerous positions on boards that keeps the gravy rolling in.

    The trouble is that if you stay quiet and keep your mouth shut, they just stand on your face, call you a terrorist and chop away more rights whilst getting everything little last red cent they can AND these vultures are the ones who are screaming that they are the ones who have been hard done by. Lets face it business doesn't care that they lack Kulturny. Nor do they realise that they cannot buy culture either.

    What a terrific way of avoiding the development of a warm and mutually helpful species that is honest enough to have a little war now and again, a police action from time to time, because, lets face it, we, as a species are a bloodthirsty little lot.

    Hmm. How about International Social Service, National Social Service, Local Social Service of one or two years duration and in the order given. With each period served the more access to out societies we gain access to with no exemptions medical or otherwise. As a teeny weeny little matter where wealth or political pressure is brought to bear to get an offspring off their social service. Guess what we could do? Maybe instant enlisting for all the family and whoever else in the closest most bloody war. The seizing of all assets etc to be used for what, maybe community wellbeing. Oh, this would include lawyers etc who prostitute their mouths daily.

    Do we all see how this relates to DRM, good ombudsmen?


    Oh the types of social service would include civil and military, farming, take your pick from the green guides to making the planet well again. As we make other thing better we cant help but improve ourselves (whether we want to or not). But, by the same token if we do stuff day after day that also becomes a self perpetuating nasty little system. China has had some good ideas for mass civil service - have a look at the size of some of the damns and other massive physical constructions that were made primarily by manual labour.
    Blood-thirsty are we...Yep your comment make me want to beat you with a pogo stick...don't ask about the pogo stick.

    27.10.2008 16:47 #12

  • varnull

    Tas sounds like somebody with first hand experience of living on a Kibbutz.



    Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work. The flower of carnage-shura no hana..

    27.10.2008 17:17 #13

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