“Apple Inc. did not breach the law in the way its iTunes store sold downloadable songs for the iPod music player, the Dutch antitrust regulator said,” Marcel van de Hoef reports for Bloomberg. “‘Consumers who buy music through the Internet store of Apple can and may also play this music on devices other than the iPod,’ the antitrust regulator NMa said today in an e-mailed statement. ‘It appears that there’s no conditional sale.'”
“Dutch consumer organization Consumentenbond in January accused Cupertino, California-based Apple of abusing its ‘considerable market power.’ The iTunes online store sells music with copyright protection software, which makes it harder to play songs on devices other than Apple’s iPod,” van de Hoef reports. “The consumer organization won’t appeal NMa’s decision, Ewald van Kouwen, a spokesman for Consumentenbond, said.”
Full article here.
What we really need now is a study, fact-finding mission, and lawsuit — all rolled into one, and throw in a smear campaign, too — designed to figure out why stupid pain-in-the-asses waste so much damn time for themselves and others over blatantly obvious nonsense.
Regarding MDN’s take – I nominate Rob Enderle! He’s intimately familiar with all the things you suggest.
Laugh out loud funny!
No appeal? So Apple can continue their years of monopolistic behavior while little guys like the Zune have to fend for themselves against Cupertino’s underhanded business practices?
What is especially disappointing is seeing all of the innovation and hard work that goes into products like the Zune only to have them crushed by substandard, mediocre offerings like the iPod because Apple refuses to play fair. They’ve been getting away with it for years. Hey Apple, would it kill you to invest in some R & D and maybe, just maybe put some effort, creativity and usability into your products?
Hold your head up high, Microsoft. Can’t wait to see the evolution of the marvelous Zune.
Your potential. Our passion.™
Hey Zuney baby,
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Gimme a squirt!
Oh please! A lawsuit?
I can’t believe that this site is calling for that.
You complain when Apple sued, so now you are calling for Apple to sue?
Well, on second thought, the comments made by the site are often so absurd, that I shouldn’t be surprised.
The iTunes Terms of Service has always had this clause-
“You shall be entitled to export, burn (if applicable) or copy Products solely for personal, noncommercial use.”
– and there is no way in hell this is not a clear fair-use statement allowing burning to CD and subsequent transfer to any and all mp3 players. The case was crap from the get.
The argument has been, and I’m not agreeing, or disagreeing with it, that you shouldn’t have to go through the trouble to burn a disk first. That just like MP3’s, you should just be able to move the song wherever you like, without having to go through more steps.
to mel Gross:
Well then, they should have the same investigation into all M$ DRM download sites. We can’t listen to them on our iPod.
Yes, unlike the other online Music Retailers Apple places no restriction on what device you place your music/video on. The Zune store the music is licensed to Zune devices only, and the other stores that use the other MS DRM is restricted by license to devices that use the MS Plays for Sure DRM. You want fun restrictions on Download license read the vCast Content license agreement.Cell phone music stores Content Use Licenses are so restrictive they are funny.
Dan, I’m not saying no. But, he’s talking about a lawsuit by Apple. He wants to sue the consumer organization, which is, after all, just trying to make things better for the consumer. Whether they are right or wrong, is something else. But suing them for trying to do what they think is right? No.
The reason why MS wasn’t brought up on this is because in music players and downloads, Apple is the monopoly.
MS has been having problems in the EU system for years from its OS monopoly, when Apple gets away with the same activity, because it’s not a monopoly in that area.
That’s the way it works.
@Meo gross– MDN’s take was tongue-in-cheek.
From the aforementioned article: ” Barbara van der Rest, spokeswoman for The Hague-based NMa said today. “ITunes have to be copied to the computer’s hard drive before they can be loaded onto another device,”
If you haven’t started laughing yet, please re-read the sentence very c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y.
Uh it says iTunes has to be copied on your computer hard drive first, THEN only can you copy the songs onto another machine…. Since when do you not run iTunes from your own hard drive?
MDN MW: “clueless”
“That’s the way it works.”
Please enlighten us on things work will you?
What redress does any company or individual have unless they petition the court to hear their case? Sometimes suing someone only serves to provide a forum in which all the facts can be heard and perhaps establish legal precedent. In any case, what both parties want is a judgement.
Microsoft is having problems with the EU, not because of its OS monopoly, but because of its illegal activity to crush its competitors.
@Zune Tang,
Thanks – needed a good laugh!
I honestly believe that the people who filed this lawsuit didn’t know about burning a CD to remove Fairplay. Typical. No research into the case before it was filed.
Spark, I go by the tone set over a long period of time. Over that time, the comments made by whomever is writing them for the site has been hysterical.
I’m by no means the only one who has commented on that.
I can no longer judge what is serious, and what is not.
You assume that it is not, I assume otherwise.
Sadly, the ranting of MDN is the laughingstock of even other Mac rumors sites.
Whomever you are, I will try.
MS is in trouble about crushing its competitors precisely because they are a monopoly.
Why don’t you read something about it?
I want to meet the little pooch that made the decision.
Good boy!
Hey Zune, why not change your name to Poon Tang?
If you don’t know what that means go ask a Vietnam Vet.
Another ridiculous take by MDN, and yes they are increasingly the laughing stock on the better Mac-sites (and rightfully so).
What happened here is that a consumer organisation filed a complaint with the dutch anti-trust body, and the complaint got rejected (and rightfully so).
However, this is in principal normal behaviour on both sides in a democratic system that is based on checks and balances of power. You have the right to be proven wrong so to speak, otherwise big power structures will get away with anything.
So a concern was raised (this wasn’t a courtcase), it got judged by an appropiate body, the concern was rejected, and all parties respect the anti-trust bodies descision. This is normal civil procedure, and is healthy. This way, laws that are usually specified in more general terms, get concrete jurisprudence as what that law factually means in actual civic traffic. That’s good.
Because of these processes, M$ has a hard life in the EU. That’s also good. And sadly, unlike in some other country, where the thugs from Seattle indeed get away with anything. And that’s not good.
My God! the nitwits are breeding like rabbits out there!
Can iTunes purchases be burned onto CDs? DVDs? Copied to tape? None of those things are iPods now, are they?
Quick somebody tie their tubes.
@Zune Thang
Apple is not a monopoly, they keep the little Zune around just for that.
Your third rate Zune. Our great iPod.™
Perhaps good to know that Consumentenbond is actively fighting MS on Vista, demanding compensation, free downgrade to XP, more free support etc.
So it’s not all bad.