Bjoern Erik Thon

Apple may be heading to court – in Norway of all places – for refusing to make iTunes work with .mp3 players other than iPods.  The Consumer Ombudsman of Norway, Bjoern Erik Thon, has claimed that Apple has refused repeated attempts by government officials to make iTunes interoperable with other players, not only in Norway, but also in other Scandinavian nations, France, and Germany.  Despite some progress in negotiations, Thon believes than Apple has not done nearly enough and has brought suit.  He hopes to get support from other nations, but as the case currently stands, it would go before the Norwegian Market Council, a consumer court.

I don’t know Norwegian, so I can’t read what the law says, but Thon claims that Norwegian law guarantees the right of people to play downloaded music on the player of their choice.  If the case is successful, it could have positive ramifications for music listeners around the world, who would no longer be stuck with iPods if they wanted something else.