Norway’s Consumer Ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon is keeping his pledge to put more pressure on Apple to cut the DRM tie between its iPod models and music downloads from the iTunes download store. The consumer mediator gave Apple a November 3rd deadline back in September this year, and now that the deadline has passed without Apple making enough effort (in the Ombudsman’s opinion), it may face being brought before a government agency.
“iTunes has shown a lacking will to comply with our demand and we are now preparing to try this case in the Market Council,” Consumer Ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon said in a statement. Back in 2006, Norway was among the world’s first countries to take issue with Apple’s FairPlay DRM, which while protecting music, also created a tie between hardware made by Apple and digital downloads it sells.
Apple responded to the pressure by providing certain information to its customers including a workaround that includes burning copy protected music to a CD with iTunes and then ripping to standard unprotected digital audio, which will work with pretty much all MP3 players on the market.
“iTunes maintains its previous views in its response to the Consumer Ombudsman. The company is in other words unwilling to make changes to make music in the iTunes Store available to all music players,” the agency said in its statement. Whether or not Apple will cave to the pressure remains to be seen.
Result for: MP3
One of the most recognizable names in music entertainment has maintained a “No Downloads” policy ever since Apple’s iTunes revolutionized purchasing music on the Internet. AC/DC does not support the download format, and definitely not Apple’s iTunes service. In Australia however, BigPond has added 16 AC/DC albums to its line-up, available in MP3 and WMA formats (some sell as WMA only).
“Since iTunes came into existence, we’ve actually increased our back catalogue sales without being on the site. We were sternly warned by our management team and our record label that the complete opposite would be the case,” Angus Young said in a recent interview.
“Maybe I’m just being old-fashioned, but this iTunes, God bless ‘em, it’s going to kill music if they’re not careful,” Brian Johnson told Reuters. “It’s a…monster, this thing. It just worries me. And I’m sure they’re just doing it all in the interest of making as much…cash as possible. Let’s put it this way, it’s certainly not for the…love, let’s get that out of the way, right away.”
According to AC/DC representatives, the “No Downloads” policy does not just apply to Apple, but to all other companies selling music on the Internet. BigPond music is selling 16 AC/DC albums at $16.50 a piece, but the new album will not be available on the service and no single tracks are available to download. “AC/DC Live” is the number 17 album for BigPond this week.
Result for: MP3
HMV, Woolworths, 7digital, Digitalstores, Tescodigital, Tunetribe, and Play.com have all agreed to promote a new “MP3 compatible” logo that they hope will raise the profile of the open MP3 music format and inform users on what they can do with their DRM-free downloads.
The logo should also help consumers identify legal music stores from P2P.
The Entertainment Retailers Association created the logo and says it will emphasize that MP3s can be played in all media players.
7digital’s Ben Drury added that digital sales “have been booming because users love the freedom of MP3″.
“The beauty of an MP3 file is that once you have bought it, you don’t need to be a computer genius or a lawyer to make it work and you are not locked in to a relationship with a single retailer or hardware manufacturer,” he said.
The BPI is also standing behind the new proposal.
“This logo will not only help give consumers confidence that the music files they are buying will play on a wide range of devices, but will also help them know that they are legal and that artists are getting paid,” noted Geoff Taylor, BPI chief executive.
