"Europe is upping the pressure on Apple to open up its restrictive DRM that ties iTunes to the iPod. Norway ruled last year that the iPod-iTunes tie-in was unreasonable and gave Apple a deadline to make a change to its policies, but was unsatisfied with the response they got. Now France and Germany have joined forces with Norway, making it a lot harder for Apple to just walk away from those markets. From the article: 'France's consumer lobby group, UFC-Que Choisir, and Germany's Verbraucherzentrale are now part of the European effort to push Apple into an open DRM system, with more countries considering joining the group. However, the company has been under some fire over the last year due to those restrictions, first with France and then Denmark looking to open up restrictive DRM schemes (including, but not limited to iTunes) ... Norwegian consumer groups were unimpressed by Apple's response. Norway has now given Apple a new deadline of September of this year to change its policies, and the pressure on Apple will likely grow in the months leading up to the deadline.'" Source: Slashdot.org Article: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070122-8676.html [OT] Interesting, in America there is the possibility that all podcast will have to use drm... and in Europe, 2 major country's are taking aim a the ITunes DRM! What confuses me is how can you possibly have "open DRM", DRM only 'works' because its proprietary... i suppose thats the problem for businesses to come up with though, otherwise there in the firing line for being anti-competitive [/OT]
The problem: DefectiveByDesign.org | The Campaign to Eliminate DRM Salon.com Technology | Courtney Love does the math Maximum PC: The Real Reason DRM Sucks Alternatives: DRM Free - Music Search DRM-free music subscription services? | Ask MetaFilter Lala.com: Trade CDs for $1, Listen to great music Jamendo : Open your ears Magnatune: free MP3 music and music licensing (royalty free music, production music and license music).
