The Norwegian Ombudsman ruled in June that the terms and
conditions for iTunes were unlawful and have to be changed. The
body gave Apple until 21st June to respond to the ruling, but that
deadline has been extended until 1st August, said Norway's Consumer
Council.
"ITunes/Apple has been given an extension until August the
first," said Torgeir Waterhouse, senior advisor at the Consumer
Council of Norway, the body that took the iTunes case. "We at the
Consumer Council had hoped they would reply before the 21st
June."
Ombudsmen in Sweden and Denmark are also looking into the issue
and are likely to follow Norway's judgment. The Danish authorities
are investigating even though they have received no formal
complaint. Norwegian, Danish and Swedish law tends to be similar
and legal authorities tend to act together in such cases.
The Norwegian Ombudsman ruled in June that the iTunes DRM, which
ensures that only home computers and Apple's iPods can play iTunes
songs, was illegal and gave the company until 21st June to
respond.
Apple has already run into difficulty in France, where a recent
copyright law was passed which all but outlawed the iTunes DRM. A
last-minute amendment created a loophole that will allow Apple to
continue with the same technology only with the consent of song
copyright holders.
The Ombudsman, whose decisions have the force of a court ruling,
had also made other orders which apply immediately and to which
Apple will not have the chance to respond. Apple has the right to
appeal to the Norwegian courts system on any of the orders.
The other rulings centred on Apple's terms and conditions for
the iTunes service. The terms had specified English law as the
basis for the agreement and disclaimed liability for any damage
done by the service to a user's computer.
The Ombudsman said that these terms were unacceptable, that
Norwegian law had to apply and that Apple could not discharge its
computer-damage liability. Those judgments came into effect
immediately.
