Norway Ombudsman looks at iTunes TOS and cries foul

Moaners.

All of you.

WIthout DRM there wouldnt be ANY music stores online anyway.

The main problem, as I see it, is that Apple is allowed to change the terms of use as it sees fit, and have those changes apply to material you bought before the change was made.

If I buy some tracks and the conditions say I'm allowed 5 other machines, Apple should not be allowed to change the terms of use later and lower that number to 3. I don't get to decide three months down the line that I'd rather pay 24p instead of 79p, so why should Apple get to change their mind?

[Pablo: Essentials, music vids, celebrity playlists, the weekly free downloads and the Pixar shorts are available on iTMS UK (no movies, though). Are they not on the other European stores? Weak...]

I was a faithful iTMS customer in Europe for the first few months. At that time I thought that the European stores would eventually catch up with the US store in terms of support, updates, and features. Now the situation is rather pathetic: no music videos, no tv shows, no short films, an exiguous offer of itunes originals, no itunes essentials, no free downloads, no celebrity playlists (I don't care much for this, but still). Guess what, I'm back to P2P and torrents. We already pay premium prices for Apple hardware, software, .Mac, and DRM'ed songs. What do we get in return? Inferior service. Good grief!

I disagree. The iTMS terms of service are not an adhesion contract. (When one party has all the power and takes advantage of the other. E.g., 'payday loan' operations.) The buyer is able to use a purchase in several ways She is informed of the limitations -- DRM and inability to transfer movies to playable DVDs -- before making the purchase. Perhaps Apple needs to amplify communicating the terms, but I don't think the consumer is taken advantage of. Also, she has option not to make purchases from iTMS.

Thank you, Norway. I buy from iTMS Europe (Germany) from time to time, but I've come to prefer ripping or P2P simply because of that ridiculous 5 computer only rule. This rule makes it nearly impossible to share the some of my music with family and friends - you get to the point of having to ask a friend whether she's still interested in the songs you "lent" her when you'd like to play ANY iTMS song on a sixth computer. What's the point? I don't mind paying for my music, but this policy in combination with copy-protected CDs just drives me into the arms of sweet Xfactor.

Also I agree with your comment on Apple's weak Europe support. Are we not good Apple citizens over here? It pisses me off everytime I click on an iTunes link only to read "This item is not currently available on iTunes Germany." Why is that? Some evil music industry trick? I remember ordering "hard copy" from Amazon US long before they even opened the Europe branches, and I regularly buy downloadable software from US sites.

This is an instance where being in Old Europe actually sucks...