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Consumer Council of Norway files a complaint regarding Apple iTunes Music Store’s terms of service

Friday, January 27, 2006 · 1:43 pm · 29 Comments

“When you purchase music from iTunes they give themselves the right to single-handedly change your rights at any given later date. For this and other reasons the Consumer Council of Norway has delivered a formal complaint to the Consumer Ombudsman where we ask them to look into several violations of The Marketing Control Act,” Jo Singstad reports for Forbrukerrådet. “The terms of use are unreasonable so we are asking the Consumer Ombudsman to use § 9a of The Marketing Control Act to force a change of the terms, says senior advisor Torgeir Waterhouse… Since many other download services like CDON.com, prefueled.com and MSN.no operate with similar terms of use the Consumer Council of Norway has requested that these services are also put under review for potential breach of the Marketing Control Act… Consumers should be free to choose which equipment and software he or she prefers. The access to content should not be blocked by a random choice of technology. If your next mp3-player is not an iPod you’ll not be able to listen to the music you’ve bought from iTunes, says Waterhouse.”

Full article here.

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Comment Feed

29 Comments

1 2 Next »

Tommy Boy

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 2:55 pm · Reply

Know any computer firm that doesn’t wish to change their terms at any time?
Crybabies

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 2:57 pm · Reply

“If your next mp3-player is not an iPod you’ll not be able to listen to the music you’ve bought from iTunes, says Waterhouse.”

Ohhh, BOO-FRICKETY-HOO!

And if my next computer’s a PC then I won’t be able to use my Mac software on it. No shit, Sherlock.

Cry me a frickin’ river, build a bridge, and get over it.
Ace

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 3:02 pm · Reply

lol… but it’s in Norway. Surely a global policy can’t be affected by a single country. BU’s look into all this stuff, communicate with the local government and research potential problems before they released anything into a target market whether in the US or another country. This ain’t happening.. period.
ndelc

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 3:06 pm · Reply

“If your next mp3-player is not an iPod you’ll not be able to listen to the music you’ve bought from iTunes…”

That’s what the problem is? Tough. That’s their prerogative. I can’t put my cassette in my CD player either.

I thought they were complaining about the fact that Apple could change the rights allowed by the DRM at any time (such as the number of times you can burn a playlist, etc.). I could get behind that, but not the fact that iTMS purchases won’t work on other players.
Abraham Bainbridge

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 3:13 pm · Reply

There is a problem here. Most Norwegian state institutions are in effect agents for Microsoft. Just look at the NRK broadcasting system.

I suspect that the real motivation is protection of Microsoft, rather than the protection of consumers.
Dave Koenig

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 3:15 pm · Reply

Will they also be filing a suit against Apple when they can’t run their OS9 apps on the intel architecture?
LordRobin

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 3:28 pm · Reply

I’m confused. Is their problem that Apple can change the usage terms of music you’ve already bought? Or that iTunes music only plays in iTunes and iPod?

If it’s the former, they have a point. When I buy something, I consider the transaction closed, and I don’t like the idea that that one party can change the rules later. (Mind you, this hasn’t kept me from buying iTunes tracks.)

If it’s the latter, they need to shut up and find something else to whine about. iTunes is a service for the iPod. If you don’t want an iPod, buy your music elsewhere. And if you switch from the iPod to something else (why???), then burn a fricking CD (which you should do anyway) and rip the tracks back as MP3 or WMA.
John

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 3:38 pm · Reply

Unreasonable complaint. Why doesn’t my volkswagon go as fast as a ferrari? Why can’t my tv antenna pick up satalite tv. Come on what a fricken joke!
Holy Mackerel

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 3:48 pm · Reply

And the ringtones I buy for my Nokia in Finland (next door to Norway) can’t even be transferred to another Nokia, let alone an Erikson. At least with iTunes you can burn to a CD-RW then rip the songs back in.
John

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 3:50 pm · Reply

iTunes clearly has the terms listed for all to read when you install the software and use the service. So if you don’t like the terms you can use something else. No one is forcing an iPod down anyones throat especially Apple. So this complaint is more lame than ever. I’m sure if this council talks to Apple that is what Apple’s legal department is going to tell them and they are within the law.
TheViking

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 4:07 pm · Reply

This is utter crap. I can’t just drop into a Maserati dealer, pick up a set of wheel and then complain to the authorities when they won’t fit on my Mini.
billysmom

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 4:14 pm · Reply

its norway… enough said.
progeny

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 4:22 pm · Reply

Thank goodness the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman is looking into this. It could have fallen into the hands of the Latvian High Commisioner of Fishy Things, or heaven forbid the Bahraini Grand Pooh-Bah of Incompatible Formats.
Being big

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 4:22 pm · Reply

means getting this kind of attention. Goes with the territory.

Maybe the terms will improve in some way as a result, but they’re pretty standard so I doubt it.

I don’t care since I’m not interested in second-rate players anyway.
Ben Dover

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 4:34 pm · Reply

It’s Norway…

Sure, the people are blonde & pretty, but there’s only 4.5M of them in total….

If they’re going to be so picky, there’s not much business to be lost from shutting down iTMS Norway and force them to buy their music from Napster or MSN… They’ll back off really quickly once they’ve had a taste….
abqMac

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 4:38 pm · Reply

The main claim is not true. If you get rid of your iPod you can burn all your purchased music to CDs and then re-import the songs into a different software (now DRM-free) and play it on anything you want.
Macromancer

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 4:55 pm · Reply

abqMac is right on. Besides people should be burning their puchased music onto CD for backup purposes anyway.
MacFinn

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 5:01 pm · Reply

I doubt that Napster or MSN isn’t available in Norway…
Will

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 5:22 pm · Reply

Less then 4,5 million, methinks, but coming from Norway myself, I happen to know that they are stinkin’ rich:) Good customers, in other words.

But this isn’t about not being able to play songs on other players, first and foremost, but concerning the rights of the consumer versus the enterprise and I see that as a most legitimate concern. Who in their right mind actually loves DRM!? We know – or should know, at least – that Apple most probably had to add that, to get the record companies to join. It is a way to try to block piracy and of course it is not a popular way, but after all, I see it as a consequence. Our actions have their consequences. If we think we can get music for free, DRM is a consequence of that way of thinking.

But the first thing the Ombudsman is pointing at, is the part about changing the terms. Now, if you think that is OK, where do that lead us? Is a contract worth anything at all if one of the parties signing it can change the terms of it, without as much as conferring with the other part? I should say no, it renders any contract, any signed agreement totally useless. Maybe that is the standard in the USA, but consumers do have rights in the Nordic countries.

That said, Norway is very MS-dominated according to my impression, but they are definitely not running the errand of Redmond, at least not consciuosly, but to be fair, they should go after everyone – and they are looking into other services as well, the article reads.

I find the other part highly interesting, though, where they say that about Apple is not to be hold responsible for corrupt files etc. If a consumer can prove that the product s/he has bought has flaws at the purchase (here: download) s/he should of course have the right to get the money back or a new product – but what about that part about corrupting a product caused by hacking, viruses etc.?

Wouldn’t that be interesting if they looked into the products of a certain Redmond-based company with that in mind?

My 2-øre’s worth…
misanthrope

Friday, January 27, 2006 - 5:25 pm · Reply

Norway? That’s in Canada, right? And I think you’ll find that DRM changes only affect purchases made after the change. Previously purchased tunes still have the old DRM rules attached.