With Apple refusing to release its FairPlay DRM technology for other music services to make use of, Virgin Mega has decided to file a complaint against Apple about this claiming that it is harming competition. A hearing is expected to take place somewhere between October and November.
Virgin is not the only company that wishes to offer FairPlay protected music as several other music services with real in particular aim to add iPod support to their services. Real decided to 'hack' the FairPlay technology to add iPod support to its lineup of supported players, however Apple has criticized the move and warned that it may block out Real's support with a future iPod software update.
Apple recently settled another legal dispute with E-Data when they claimed its iTunes service violated its intellectual-property rights by running an online music download store.
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The action was filed with the French Competition Council in June and disclosed along with several other legal matters on Thursday as part of Apple's quarterly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the filing, the online store, part of the Virgin family, is seeking various unspecified "interim measures," pending a decision on the merits of the case. A hearing on that request is expected in either October or November, Apple said in the filing. An Apple representative declined to comment further on the Virgin dispute. A Virgin representative was not immediately available for comment. A number of media companies, most prominently RealNetworks, have called on Apple to open up its FairPlay digital rights technology so that other digital music services can securely transfer files onto Apple's iPod player. FairPlay blocks people from making unlimited copying of songs but also makes sure that the iPod doesn't work with any other kind of copy-protected formats. |
Originally, it appeared that Apple were all too happy to find ways to sell its iPod such as using its iTunes store to do just that. However, it looks like Apple is totally against other companies offering iPod support to their music service. If Apple's iTunes store is really running at a profit-loss, I cannot figure out why Apple would not let someone else sell tunes compatible with the iPod and thus promote it further.
Source: CNET News - Music
