OFT &#39;considering&#39; iTunes &#39;rip-off&#39; claims
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UK regulator the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has not initiated an investigation into Apple&#39;s iTunes UK pricing. The Consumer&#39;s Association (CA) yesterday filed a complaint with the OFT, alleging that Apple is &quot;ripping-off&quot; UK music buyers.
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It may be a small, $149 step, but Apple Computer&#39;s introduction of a U2 &quot;digital box set&quot;--a downloadable compilation of every song the band has ever recorded--could portend a shift in online-music pricing.
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A consumer's group said Wednesday it has complained to government regulators about the cost of downloading music from Apple's iTunes system.    British buyers are charged 79 pence, or $1.41, for one track, while customers in France and Germany pay euro0.99, or $1.21...
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from the this-isn&#39;ta-court-of-justice,-son,-this-is-a-court-of-law dept. Iphtashu Fitz writes &quot;The Associated Press recently reviewed many of the copyright infringement lawsuits that the RIAA filed against
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A piece of software used by Apple's iTunes has accidentally sparked a scandal in the classical music world -- and cast a shadow on the reputation of an obscure, deceased British pianist now accused of plagiarism.
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The price of music downloads has been a contentious issue among fans in the UK, who are quick to point out the pricing scheme often means that downloading a full album costs more than buying the CD.
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The Office of Fair Trading refers Apple's iTunes service to the European Commission on the grounds that it over-charges UK customers.
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Some Macworld Online readers have experienced problems using the UK iTunes Music Store in recent days. Letters received by Macworld confirm multiple instances in which users trying to access
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Apple has responded to a midnight Wednesday deadline in relation to antitrust concerns over the pricing of songs on its iTunes online music store across different European countries. The European Commission has expressed concerns about Apple setting unfair iTunes pricing prohibiting users in one country from downloading music from a website intended to serve another. A European commission spokesperson said: "They answered yesterday and we are studying [the response] carefully at this point."
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Blog: The separate lawsuits both involve copyright violation; one alleging that Apple used a photograph in promotional materials without permission, and the second charging the company with selling a potentially "copycatted" song in the iTunes Store.
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Apple has taken steps to take ownership of the iTunes.co.uk domain name from its current owner, with the company formally complaining to Nominet, the UK domain name registrar, that it is entitled to the domain.
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A consumer group in the United Kingdom has requested that authorities investigate iTunes' pricing schedule.
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Instead of &quot;Think Different,&quot; perhaps Apple Computer&#39;s slogan should be &quot;Price Different,&quot; says a group of disgruntled UK music fans.
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Consumer watchdog the Consumers&#39; Association (CA) has today written to the UK office of Fair Trading (OFT), complaining that UK digital music shoppers are being ripped-off.
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People who received MP3 players as holiday gifts may want to steer clear of some Web sites that claim to offer legal music but don&#39;t have licensing agreements with major music labels, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) said.CDT, a consumer rights group, has published a list of more than 30 MP3 download sites that don&#39;t have licensing deals with major U.S. music labels. The sites, which charge between $20 and $35 for subscriptions, say they offer music from artists signed to the major labels, CDT said.Consumers should be aware of the sites on the list because in some cases, they may simply provide subscribers popular peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software that&#39;s otherwise free, said David Sohn, CDT&#39;s senior policy counsel. And customers using P-to-P software to trade unauthorized music files could face lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), he said.&quot;People might get the false impression of what they paid for was legal,&quot; Sohn said. &quot;If you pay $25, you might think that $25 goes to compensate the rights holder.&quot;The CDT tried to contact the operators of each site on its MP3 warning list. In each case, the site operators did not respond.Several of the sites on the list seem to be run by the same people -- they have similar designs and make similar claims. In many cases, the sites are registered outside the U.S., Sohn said.Some of the sites hedge their claims of being legal in small print. For example, AllCoolMusic.com, which says it offers 12 billion files, includes a disclaimer at the bottom of its front page: &quot;Today, there are 240 million users trading MP3s on legal file-sharing networks. Sharing is not illegal as long as you obey all relevant copyright laws. Sharing copyrighted material, without permission to do so, is illegal. Purchasing a membership in AllCoolMusic.com does not give you license to download or upload copyrighted material. AllCoolMusic.com implores you to respect all copyright laws.&quot;AllCoolMusic didn&#39;t respond to CDT&#39;s letter, and there&#39;s no contact information readily available on the site.In March 2005, CDT filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against two Web sites claiming their music and video downloads were 100 percent legal.The FTC filed a complaint in U.S. court against one of the Web sites, mp3downloadcity.com, obtained an injunction, and eventually reached a settlement with the Web site operator in May 2006. The settlement required the site to refund customers.The RIAA has focused its lawsuits on P-to-P users that share music with others, not those that simply download music from P-to-P networks. However, if subscribers to these sites would opt to share their music on the P-to-P software some of the sites provide, that could expose them to lawsuits, Sohn said.In many cases, users of the sites are &quot;getting less than you pay for,&quot; he said.
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One would do wise to consider with great skepticism Apple&#39;s denials that it remains wholly uninterested in digital music players based on solid-state flash memory cards rather than hard drives.
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The Guardian (UK) has published an article looking at the battle between Apple and everyone else in the online music download business.