Under the Gavel: Norway says “ikke” to Apple

Those Norwegians are at it again. You may recall that they gave Apple until August 1st to respond to their allegations that iTunes unfairly locks its music to the iPod platform. Apple duly submitted a reply on the 1st, but asked that it remain unpublished until the Norwegians were ready to respond. They've now done so, and the letter has been made public, though some parts are still confidential. And, in a nutshell, Norway's response has been less than thrilled.

”In their reply, iTunes show a will to change and to keep up a dialogue, but a lot of issues are still at stake before agreement can be reached on all points. Important issues such as a disclaim of responsibilities and the locking of the product to iPod remain unsolved,” said Bente Øverli, a section leader for Norway's Consumer Ombudsman.

Norwegian Consumer Council senior advisor Torgeir Waterhouse also turned the thumbscrews on Steve Jobs himself.

“It seems clear to us that iTunes intend to continue their unfair practice of using the DRM as lock-in technology under the cover of being a copy protection-only scheme. The position they're signaling now is the direct opposite of the consumer-friendly attitude Steve Jobs put forward in 2002 when he told Macworld that “If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own,” said Waterhouse.

Ouch. The Norway consumer group and its buddies in Denmark and Sweden are now entering discussions about how to proceed, but since they've yet to acquire the backing of any of the countries' lawmaking bodies, it seems fair to say that iTunes isn't about to go away.