“Consumer groups in Germany, France, Norway and Finland have joined forces to step up pressure on Apple to loosen the tight ties between its iTunes online music store and iPod music player,” John Blau reports for IDG News Service.
Blau reports, “At the top of the list of demands is interoperability. ‘We want consumers who purchase music from the iTunes store to be able to copy that music directly to any device without having to go through several complex formatting procedures,’ Mrowka said.”
Blau reports, “The European consumer authorities don’t accept Apple’s argument that the music industry is the reason for the company’s restrictive DRM (digital rights management) policy. ‘We’re not against DRM per se,’ Mrowka said. ‘We accept that music companies need to protect their content. But there is no reason why DRM has to be linked to a single device.'”
Full article here.
Apple’s iTunes Store does not sell music with DRM that is linked to a single device. iTunes Store tracks can be played on iPods, Apple Macs, certain iTunes-compatible Motorola phones, and also Windows PCs. Is copying iTunes Store music directly to an also-ran device really any less complex than copying it to a blank CD? Hey, some people want Outlook, AutoCAD, and PC games to run directly on Mac OS X without having to dirty their Macs with Windows. Others would like websites that work not just in Internet Explorer, but in other browsers, too. Even more would like to see PlayStation, Wii, and Xbox games work interchangeably on all systems. Where are the consumer authorities for those people?
We must have missed the part where Apple held a gun to consumers’ heads and forced them to buy iPods and use iTunes and shop at the iTunes Music Store. You can use an iPod without using the iTunes Music Store. You can use the iTunes Music Store without using an iPod. So, how can either be anti-competitive?
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