Norway, Netherlands Threaten Fines For iTunes Monopoly
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by Mike Zazaian January 25, 2007 - 4:36pm, 10 Comments
Consumer protection czar Bjoern Erik Thon, or ombudsman,
as its called in Norway, has demanded that Apple make its iTunes media download suite compatible with non-iPod mp3 players or face legal action. According to Thon the Norwegian government will impose fines on Apple if these requests are not met by October 1st of this year. Added Thon:
iTunes is imposing unreasonable and unbalanced restrictions that are not in accordance with Norwegian law.
Similarly, Netherlands consumer protection group Consumentenbond has requested that Dutch antitrust watchdog NMa investigate what were referred to as illegal practices
in a formal complaint filing. The Netherlands has given Apple an identical timeline in which to comply.
What we want from Apple is that they remove the limitations that prevent you from playing a song you download from iTunes on any player other than an iPod,
said Consumentenbondvan spokesman Ewald van Kouwen. When you buy a music CD it doesn’t play only on players made by Panasonic. People who download a song from iTunes shouldn’t be bound to an iPod for the rest of their lives.
Norway was the first European country to take action against Apple’s iTunes dominance when it filed a formal complaint last June. Since then consumer agencies in Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany and Finland have made similar complaints, and have joined together to find resolution for the matter.
French consumer agency UFC-Que Choisir has been the most active in the fight against the iTunes monopoly. The lobbyist organization championed a law that forced Apple to license its software and hardware to French businesses, which was put into place last August.
And while each country has chosen to deal with the matter in its own way, the general attitudes toward Apple’s policies are largely the same. From a joint statement issued by governments from the aforementioned countries:
We believe consumers have a right to play material purchased online on a portable device of their own choice. Contract clauses that make this impossible or too inconvenient are unfair and should be revoked.
Go Norway
James
Youtube is one of the most popular video sharing sites on the net. A year ago, co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen were in between jobs, a pair of twentysomething geeks running up big credit card debts as they tooled around a garage trying to develop an easy way for people to share homemade videos on the Web.
Hurley says, “I do not want to work hard. I want to live a soft life. I want to sleep for three hours every afternoon and nine hours at night. I do not want to stay awake the whole day so that I can get a few 350 grand at the end of each month. I do not want my talents to be exploited by a ruthless employer. I am a lazy man. That is why I choose to live off the net. I am too lethargic to try and survive in the real world. That is why I did not bother to hold down a job though my credit card debt soared.
“On the net things are handed to me by Google. The idea of youtube came to me from a dinner party with a half-dozen friends in the greatest city in the world San Francisco. It was January, 2005, and we couldnt figure out a good solution. Sending the clips around by e-mail was a bust: The e-mails kept getting rejected because they were so big. Posting the videos online was a headache, too. So we created a site and put in basic software.
“What I and Steve came up with is a Web site, now called YouTube, that has become an Internet phenomenon. Show the honey and the bees will flock to it. We worked for about six hours each week for two months designing youtube. We had the idea to create a community around the video.
“Once that was done we knew that tons of millions of dollars would just flow into our laps after the Google buyour. We will not have to work hard. In the old economy you have to work really hard for a lousy promotion which might give you a few more grand if your employer is very generous. You have to get up 3early in the morning and run for a few grand. On the net you can become rich without working hard.
“On the net once you have the idea you just sit at home and then magic will happen. That is exactly what happened at Paypal, Skype, MySpace, Facebook. The basic, simple to design software that I and Chen designed allows people to post almost anything they like on YouTube in minutes. People can jack off on porn. Now we are sitting at home retired early after the Google buyout. Content has been handed to us on a silver platter. We do not have to slog hard to create content like a poorly paid online journalist who makes a lousy 450k each year. We do not have to experience daily financial pressure
because our site does not get enough readers. We are not under pressure to meet deadlines. We get up at ten in the morning and consider that to be hard work. We do not have to work for ten llllong years. That is the privilege of those in the old economy. they take the tube to go to work for a bum 350,000 dollar paycheck at the end of the month.
“We have it easy. The reason why we never held a job for more than a year was because we felt that a rope was attached to out necks. We would have had to stay chained in an office with four walls. It is such a pain to get up in the morning and run for the sake of a few 350 milli grand at the end of the month. The content that we offer is free. That is easy for us to that as we do not have to work to create it. Copyrighted work is there for our users to copy and paste as that is work which we have the right to copy. Other content
comes from common folk wanting to share stuff.
“Revenues will come from advertising. The net is a click and eyeballs business. Google understands this. All I had to do was make web users some crap. I had to keep it really, really simple and watch as the 400 million moronic teenagers flock to it. Forget about working hard for a a lousy 350 grand at the end of the month. That’s so old school.
“If you get the eyeballs you get the offer. You don’t have to be first, you just have to be simple and appeal to the web crowd. Then Google, the original ‘not first, but simple’ giant will write you a check. That’s the new business model. Figure out the next hot thing that you can make simple for the average web user (kids) and those two ugly dudes from Google Sergei Brin and Larry Page will send you a jet full of cash. It’s not about brains or talent or skill or money.
It’s about timing and simplicity.
“The clicks come from youtube’s millions of eyeballs that we have not worked for. It is unearned traffic. We do not have to sweat and bleed for it. That is the privilege of poorly paid online journalists. I do not have to worry about losing my job as my content does not get enough page views. I do not have to take the initiative about my own life. I do not have to discipline myself. I do not have to worry about having a career. The millions of youtube.com visitors will ensure that this will never happen. I can simply focus on trying to build relationships with my tall, tough women friends in San Francisco
Chad Hurley
except Oslo
Norway sucks
Ya! Ya! I’m moving to Norway when global warming makes it another Riviera! Apple is greedy and self-centered. They want to remain elite while getting everyone to buy their stuff…kind of a contraction, no?
familyjules
So much for daily tech updates, there hasn’t been one in ages!!!
Ivanhoe
In light of Amazon.com’s music store that is now selling DRM-free music at 40% less, it simply shows those iTunes monopoly claims have no merit. Apple hardly makes money on iTunes store. It’s the record companies that are selling their music 40% less on Amazon.com than on iTunes store.
The only monopoly is the record companies.
Gavin J
Yes yes, and now lets sue BMW for not making its spare parts work with a Volvo, and while we are at it lets sue McDonalds for not serving hotdogs - the customer should have a right to purchase hotdogs where it suits him!
Hopy Crite
What gives these European government agencies the idea that a company has to put out a product in a certain format? It’s ridiculous. There are certainly other sites from which MP3 files can be purchased and downloaded, so it’s not like Apple has a monopoly on music. Apple has the right to distribute songs in whatever format it wishes, whether it be a proprietary format or it be a standard format. Guess what, crybabies, if it won’t run on what you got, then either pony up the money to buy an iPod or do without or buy the CD or listen to a different band. No one gives you the “right” to have music your way.
Stupid Europeans
You buy an ipod - you know you have to purchase from iTunes. Don’t want to use the iTunes store? Then go out and buy the cd and import it.
European pigs
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