Norwegian consumer group not satisfied by Apple CEO's letter

Letter doesn't get Apple off the hook

7 February 2007 16:14 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Steve Jobs' open letter to the music industry published last night has failed to satisfy at least one of the European consumer groups pushing for Apple to unlock its DRM.

Jobs' in part tried to justify Apple's DRM by pointing out that other major music retailers have also created closed ecosystems between their players and music tracks, but the senior advisor at The Norwegian Consumer Council doesn't buy that excuse.

"iTunes Music Store and others are unfair to consumers no matter how many download services follow the proprietary approach", said Torgeir Waterhouse in response to Jobs' letter.

Consumer groups, first in three Scandinavian countries and then in France, Germany, Finland, and potentially Italy, are threatening legal action against Apple for selling songs that cannot play on non-proprietary media devices.

Waterhouse still blames iTunes and the other music retailers for the situation, although he agrees some of the blame does lie with the recording studios and music labels that demand copy protection for digital downloads.

"They're still the company that's selling music to the consumers and are responsible for offering a fair deal according to Norwegian law", wrote Waterhouse.

In related news, Waterhouse told blog MacNN that Italy is joining the other European consumer groups in their campaign for Apple to license its DRM.

Full tags

Audio, Music downloads, Apple