14 DAY TRIAL // I have to be honest and admit that all this storm in a glass of water created by the European countries against Apple's DRM protection begins to get boring. Ok, I know you can't easily use the music from iTunes on other players than the iPod, but to me this begins to look rather funny. Now, who's going to join the fight tomorrow? Albania? Oh my, sorry, first we have to talk about what happened yesterday, shouldn't we?
Well, while I was reading an article written by Toby Sterling, AP Business Writer, I was amazed to see the Netherlands joined the fight, only a day after Norway labeled the iPod & iTunes couple as outlaw, due to the current DRM policy used by Apple. Now, it seems that the Dutch consumer protection entered the battlefield by filing a formal complaint with the Dutch antitrust watchdog NMa, asking Apple's "illegal practices" concerning its iTunes online store to be investigated, according to Consumentenbond spokesman Ewald van Kouwen.
"What we want from Apple is that they remove the limitations that prevent you from playing a song you download from iTunes on any player other than an iPod", said van Kouwen. "When you buy a music CD it doesn't play only on players made by Panasonic. People who download a song from iTunes shouldn't be bound to an iPod for the rest of their lives." I don't see anything wrong with this, so these guys are right, after all.
No matter how much I like the iPods, it seems that Apple must hurry up, because I don't even want to think about how this battle against DRM could impact on future sales in Europe, and I am talking especially about the iPhone. What else can I say? Stay tuned, because we may get some additional news on this topic much faster than expected...