“Apple and several major music companies are facing a European Commission antitrust probe after Brussels issued formal charges alleging that the deals that underpin the sale of music through the hugely popular iTunes platform violate competition rules,” Tobias Buck and Karl de Meyer report for The FInancial Times.
“In a surprise development, the Brussels regulator last week sent a confidential statement of objections outlining the accusations to Apple and to “major record companies”. These are understood to include Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony BMG,” Buck and de Meyer report.
Buck and de Meyer report, “The Commission’s main concern is that iTunes’ current set-up in the European market prohibits users in one country from downloading music from a website intended to serve another country.”
“‘Apple has always wanted to operate a single, pan-European iTunes store, accessible by anyone from any member state,’ an Apple spokesman said on Monday. ‘But we were advised by the music labels and publishers that there were certain legal limits to the rights they could grant us. We do not believe the company did anything to violate EU law, and we will continue to work with the EU to resolve this matter,’ he said,” Buck and de Meyer report.
Full article here.
You give them the stars, they ask for the moon.
This sounds like a music labels’ licensing morass (old country-by-country contracts that aren’t EU-applicable), not an issue caused by Apple.
Related articles:
Apple’s DRM-free iTunes play trumps Microsoft’s huge bet on DRM – April 02, 2007
Norwegian Consumer Council senior advisor applauds Apple’s iTunes Store DRM-free music – April 02, 2007
CNBC video: Apple CEO Steve Jobs and EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli – April 02, 2007
EMI’s Nicoli on DRM-free iTunes: ‘We have to trust our consumers,’ Apple’s Jobs: ‘right thing to do’ – April 02, 2007
Kudos to Steve Jobs and Apple for having courage to call for end of DRM and making it happen – April 02, 2007
Analyst Gartenberg: iTunes Store’s DRM-free music ‘a great win for Apple’ – April 02, 2007
Apple CEO Steve Jobs to appear live on CNBC within the hour – April 02, 2007
Apple: Higher quality 256 kbps AAC DRM-free music on iTunes Store coming in May – April 02, 2007
EMI rejects Warner Music buyout bid – March 04, 2007
EMI halts talks about selling DRM-free music – February 26, 2007
Warner Music approaches EMI in possible takeover bid – February 20, 2007
Macrovision posts pro-DRM open letter to Steve Jobs and digital entertainment industry – February 16, 2007
Warner’s DRM-loving Middlebronfman warns wireless industry it may lose music market to Apple iPhone – February 14, 2007
Monster Cable announces full support of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ call for DRM-free music – February 13, 2007
BBC columnist doesn’t believe Steve Jobs’ Apple would stop using DRM if music labels would allow it – February 12, 2007
EMI may sell entire music catalog DRM-free – February 09, 2007
Recording Industry Association of America wants their DRM, calls for Apple to license FairPlay – February 08, 2007
Warner’s Middlebronfman: Jobs’ DRM-free music call ‘without logic and merit, we’ll not abandon DRM’ – February 08, 2007
Technology Review editor gets a lot wrong in his article about Apple CEO Jobs’ push to end DRM – February 07, 2007
Apple’s Jobs jolts music industry; Zune exec calls Jobs’ call for DRM-free music ‘irresponsible’ – February 07, 2007
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ posts rare open letter: ‘Thoughts on Music’ – calls for DRM-free music – February 06, 2007
@Towertone
Thanks for the link to FP Review…
“…the authors of Inside the Ivory Tower asked 1,112 international relations scholars for their opinions on every administration since the original Rough Rider. Here’s how the scholars answered the question, “Which THREE U.S. presidents have been the most effective in the area of foreign policy over the past 100 years?”
George W Bush scored 1% of the votes. Still, that he got even 11 votes from “international relations scholars” suggests that not everyone understands that “international” does not mean “outside Texas”.
American foreign policy in recent times in the middle east, south america, and europe (and even the pacific – ask any new zealander) has been about promoting american interests at the expense of everyone else. It is a fact that American prestige around the world is at a low point. And, I have to say, it is all your own work…
The real question is, what will the US do about this? Change your behaviour towards the rest of the world, or sulk?
The US has been, in years gone by, a beacon of hope for many in the world. That is definitely not so true today. In fact, one could say, that the US stands as a benchmark for how NOT to run a society – what you would call “socialist” or “liberal” policies are promoted in Australia and Europe by pointing out appalling social outcomes in the USA where the divide between rich and poor has never been greater…
If Europe is becoming more socialist (probably true – just like Latin America, Australia and NZ) then it is not for want of the clear example set by the USA. I guess the way you lot live just doesn’t look that good from the outside…
…or from the inside if you are out of a job and have no healthcare huh?
This, from The Nation, April 2006…
Following Hugo Chávez’s 1998 landslide victory in Venezuela, one country after another has turned left. Today, roughly 300 million of Latin America’s 520 million citizens live under governments that either want to reform the Washington Consensus–a euphemism for the mix of punishing fiscal austerity, privatization and market liberalization that has produced staggering levels of poverty and inequality over the past three decades–or abolish it altogether and create a new, more equitable global economy.
I’m British, what’s your point?
I don’t regard every American administration’s foreign policy with disdain, or indeed every policy of a given administration.
But ask yourself how you can point me to a web page which then goes on to say…
The Office of War Crimes Issues (S/WCI) advises the Secretary of State directly on U.S. efforts to address serious violations of international humanitarian law committed anywhere in the world. These violations primarily concern large-scale atrocities including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. The Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues coordinates U.S. support for the functions of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the creation and operation of other courts and judicial mechanisms to bring perpetrators of international humanitarian law to justice. The Office of War Crimes Issues works closely with other offices at the State Department, other U.S. Government agencies, foreign governments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations on all of these projects.
As the special envoy on war crimes issues, the Ambassador-at-Large works with the United Nations in consultation with the U.S. Mission to the United Nations on a number of issues involving the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, and other projects and initiatives, including judicial mechanisms for Sierra Leone, Cambodia, and East Timor.
How the USA manages to do all of this whilst having argued for the dissolution of the UN’s tribunal on war crimes is anyone’s guess: however, the current administration’s selective lack of support for the institutions of the UN is hardly even considered news anymore – after all, who needs reliable mechanisms for delivering justice and the accompanying sentences when you can have botched executions in front of a baying mob viewed on the web.
Oh, here’s a clue…
The State Department web site below is a permanent electronic archive of information released prior to January 20, 2001. Please see http://www.state.gov for material released since President George W. Bush took office on that date. This site is not updated so external links may no longer function. Contact us with any questions about finding information.
Go to the new site and you don’t even see a reference to war crimes.
Says something about something, don’t you think?
What a waste of time it was to read this.