Steve Jobs vs The World
p2pnet.net News:- Europe is uniting against Apple C.R.A.P., which is how ZDNet’s David Berlind and the Free Software Foundation’s Richard Stallman separately describe Steve Jobs highly successful attempt to monopolize music via Apple Digital Restrictions Consumer Control software.
Berlind calls it ‘Content Restriction, Annulment, and Protection,’ and to Stallman, it’s ‘Cancellation, Restriction, and Punishment’.
“German and French consumer groups have joined a Nordic-led drive to force Apple Inc. to make its iTunes online store compatible with digital music players made by rival companies, a Norwegian official said yesterday,” says Associated Press.
Why anybody would go to all that trouble to buy high-priced, low-quality cookie-cutter product churned out by Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, the members of the Big 4 Organized Music cartel, is a total mystery. But a small number of people do, even though iTunes tunes work only on iPods.
Consumer groups in Norway, Denmark and Sweden say that means Apple violates their laws and now, Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman Bjoern Erik Thon says French consumer lobby UFC-Que Choisir and its German counterpart, Ferbraucherzentralen, have joined in, as has Finland’s Kuluttajavirasto consumer group, and other European countries are considering it, states AP.
Apple is also being sued in the US with iTunes victim Melanie Tucker who’s looking for class-action status.
She says Apple violates anti-trust laws by refusing to allow music bought through iTunes to be played on any digital music player besides the iPod, also claiming Apple doesn’t make it clear iTunes music isn’t incompatible with music and devices offered by other companies.
A French law that allows regulators to force Apple to make its iPod player and iTunes store compatible with rival offerings went into effect in August.
How can a handful of countries hope to stand against the might of Steve ‘iRule’ Jobs and his desires? Well, that is a toughie. But there is an answer, and it’s in the hands of consumers, not politicians.
“If you don’t like the fact that iPod only lets you play DRM-protected music that is purchased from the iTunes store, then don’t buy an iPod,” states John Carroll on ZDNet..
“It’s that simple.”
Also See:
C.R.A.P. – Apple and its C.R.A.P., March 4, 2006
Associated Press – Apple’s ITunes Rules Targeted, January 22, 2007
Melanie Tucker – Apple ‘monopoly’ case rolls on, January 4, 2007
ZDNet – Build your own iTunes store!, January 22, 2007
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January 23rd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
german for beginners:
its Verbraucherzentrale (singular)
Verbraucherzentralen (plural)
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:45 pm
What IS your problem with Apple?
January 23rd, 2007 at 7:13 pm
the problem is with their choice to promote DRM and be non compatable.
I own an ipod, it has mp3s on it. I never have and never will purchase a drm infrected file. opps make that rent, cause you cannot own something that someone else controlls.
January 24th, 2007 at 7:46 am
In fact, Apple has been doing this since its inception, forcing the price tag up and locking customers in. It actually does this to an equal or even greater degree than Microsoft, considering that Apple refuses to let its Mac OS run on non-Apple computers, even when it switched to Intel chips. I’m surprised that QuickTime and iTunes are even offered on the Windows platform at all.