This is the first such definitive country action against Apple and its iTunes store: Norway’s powerful consumer ombudsman ruled that its iTunes was illegal because it did not allow downloaded songs to be played on rival companies’ devices, reports FT. This could lead to other European countries, already sitting on the fence on this, to review the situation.
The ombudsman has set a deadline of Oct 1 for the Apple to make its codes available to other technology companies so that it abides by Norwegian law. If it fails to do so, it will be taken to court, fined and eventually closed down.
Meanwhile Norwegian Consumer Council, who originally launched the complaint, is in negotiations with pan-European consumer groups to present a unified position on iTunes’ legality, the story says. Sweden and Finland have already backed Norway’s stance, but have yet to take action, and the campaign was joined on Wednesday by Germany and France.
OutLaw: “It doesn’t get any clearer than this. Fairplay is an illegal lock-in technology whose main purpose is to lock the consumers to the total package provided by Apple by blocking interoperability,” said Torgeir Waterhouse of the Council. “For all practical purposes this means that iTunes Music Store is trying to kill off one the most important building blocks in a well functioning digital society, interoperability, in order to boost its own profits.”