Columnist Bill Thompson at the BBC asks whether the time has come for Apple to be put under the EU microscope in the same way as Microsoft has. "If Apple was serious about building a music industry around downloads and digital devices then it would open up its devices and interfaces to allow greater innovation and greater competition."
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-02-01
The problem is that preventing someone from the EU to buy a song or whatever else in a different country of the EU is illegal, it's breaking the rules of the common market. Living in France, I should be allowed to buy my songs in England or Germany. Beside the fact that the European Commission is allready investigating that issue due to multiple complaints, this is not the point of the BBC journalist.
What he says in his article is that Apple is using a dominant position to force consumers to buy other products from Apple, and that the recent ruling against Microsoft is setting a case law that should be used against Apple.
Member since:2005-07-06
But that makes no sense at all. You don't have to own any other Apple HW to use an iPod, or a Mac, or just about any other Apple HW I can think of. And you don't have to use an iPod with music purchased from Apple. I really can't see how anyone is being locked in. Almost all the music I have I could put on just about any other player out there.
I see no reason why Apple should have to share proprietary information unless you are willing to make all proprietary information illegal. It seems to me to be a case of "Apple should be forced to tell me all their secrets so I can compete against them with an inferior product"... If you want to compete, build a better product.
Member since:
2005-07-06
the problem with this is that recording companies have been running their businesses somewhat independently in each and every country, making one unified store somewhat of a problem because different countries get releases in different time periods (THE reason behind region coding mind you).
In reality Apple (and any other company for that matter - amazon, microsoft, walmart, whoever) should be able to sell what's on their digital store to anyone in the world. Movies, shows, music and audiobooks available worldwide at the same time - that's the power of the internet.
Saddly I think that apple has been help back by the mentality of the brick-and-mortar store