Itunes' European Troubles

 
By Sherri June 17, 2006




Not too terribly long ago I lamented for a friend of mine who could not purchase iTunes' videos from his home in Ireland. The site, he said, was inaccessible to him, so he had to patiently wait to be able to see "Lost" and other big titles.

This, I thought, was very unfair. I must admit it kind of baffled me why iTunes wouldn't open up sales there and elsewhere. I understood licensing agreements probably were the major issue, but still I thought there must be a way to overcome the issue.

Now, Apple's reasons are becoming crystal clear.

Apple's iTunes is a proprietary service. Downloads are meant to play on devices iTunes deems suitable – the iPod for the most part. It's Apple's service, so this makes sense to me. It's not necessarily fair, but that's the way it is. It would be like buying a game for the PlayStation 2 and expecting it to work on the Xbox 360 or vice versa. You know going in to the buy it will only work on one console and as a consumer you expect that.

In Europe, however, the atmosphere is different than it is in America. France and Norway are grumbling that iTunes' is breaching their laws. Denmark and Sweden may soon do the same. These countries want downloads from iTunes to be useable on players beyond the iPod.

In regard to music downloads, Norway has demanded Apple change is terms of service by Aug. 1 or face fines and maybe even prosecution.

From PC Mag:

There is definitely a feeling so far that markets work themselves out, but that is not the attitude that European legislators are starting to take," said Paul Resnikoff, founder and editor of Digital Music News. "We're talking about different economic systems, which is why most of the action is happening overseas."

Norway's complaint, filed by its consumer ombudsman, says that Apple needs to make its iTunes content suitable for use on other MP3 players. Apple hasn't said what it will do, but a possible outcome is Apple's full pull out from that country.

We have received the letter from the Norwegian Consumer Council and are looking into it," said Tom Neumayr, a spokesperson for Apple. "We're looking forward to resolving this matter."

At issue for Apple are its licensing agreements with its content suppliers. Apple can't just change its Digital Rights Management policies.

If issues like this are why Apple is treading very slowing into the European download market, I don't blame it. Asking it to change the way it does business that dramatically would be like demanding that all parts for Ford model cars must work in Mercedes Benz designs.

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