Denmark may join France and demand Apple open its DRM

Denmark's largest telecom company, TDC, and the Maersk shipping giant, have joined the French call for Apple to open up its DRM to all players, with TDC's CEO saying that "we can only press for something like the French, because it gives the consumers as many opportunities to shop for music." We're not sure if such calls resonate with the Danish government; last time we checked, the Prince was still wandering around muttering something about ghosts, and his pals were warning him that "something rotten" was going on at the top. And chances are Steve Jobs isn't losing any sleep over this -- unless he's seeing ghosts as well -- since Denmark's population of about 5.4 million makes it one of Europe's smaller markets. Regardless of whether the corporate pronouncements translate into actual law, they do seem to point to a growing trend in Europe to demand greater DRM interoperability. Elsewhere in Europe, Apple's long-running battle with the surviving Beatles over the use of the name "Apple" is due back in court this week, as Paul and Ringo continue to insist that the iPod and iTunes violate the terms of a 1991 settlement in which Apple agreed to stay out of the music business. Apple has defended itself by insisting that the agreement with the Beatles' Apple Corps publishing company applied only to physical media and not "data transmission," as Apple defines its products. Maybe Apple should try the same excuse on those melancholy Danes and see if it'll be enough to get them to put down their slings and arrows.

Read - Denmark
Read - Beatles

[JCC @ Mar 27th 2006 5:40PM]

What the Americans should do to stick it back to the French is to have congress enact a law requiring all French wineries that sells to the U.S. to allow ANY wineries to purchase their grape vines. Let's see how the stupid Frogs like it�Two can play that game!

[Chris Renton @ Mar 27th 2006 7:20PM]

So when are the French going to force MS to make the Xbox 360 compatible with Sony Playstation and Nintendo Gamecube?

Hell, I bought a copy of Halo 2, I should be able to play it on my Gameboy.

[I.P.Freely @ Mar 27th 2006 8:17PM]

Yes, DRM sucks, Yes iTMS is not perfect, Yes iTMS is being shut out by some band.

But you know what? It's not up to the Government to dictate to company to open up their trade secret.

If Apple in the future decides to license the technology, they can't because some French ASSHOLES decided that Government has the right to dictate how Apple run their business? Who the F**K are you to tell Apple how to run their business?

Ok, so Apple is the bad guy for using this DRM, but you don't have to buy this. YOU CAN decide on which DRM or DRM FREE to purchase. YOU, the buyers, decide the market not Apple.

[John @ Mar 27th 2006 8:56PM]

Well, that is so lame TDC is a competitor to ITMS, TDC's danish music store sells DRM'ed music using microsofts DRM, not allowing Mac/ipod users to play the songs purchased there why in the world would they rather have iTunes shutdown???(

[o rly @ Mar 27th 2006 9:10PM]

hmm, where are all the fanboys with "fuck Denmark?"

Lets all boycott Danish products and rename danish pastries to "Freedom-Danes."

[Harish @ Mar 27th 2006 10:17PM]

World War III anyone?

[Allan Jardine @ Mar 28th 2006 7:44AM]

@29 - Hooray!!! Someone else who gets it. I understand the opening of DRM'ed music files, and it makes sense to be able to play your file on anything else. However, this shouldn't just apply to music - it should apply to all DRM. Why target just music - its a hugely biased law against Apple.

And of course if the DRM for everything were opened - the DRM itself would be useless. So this French law is simply a cheap pot-shot at Apple.

[John @ Mar 28th 2006 8:04AM]

Sorry for shouting, but:

ENGADGET AND ENGADGET READERS - PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THIS LAW IS NOT ONLY AIMED AT APPLE COMPUTER!!! *****ALL COMPANIES****** INCLUDING SONY, MICROSOFT, VIRGIN, ETC. WILL HAVE TO MAKE THEIR DRM INTEROPERABLE!!!

geez. had to get that off of my chest.

[Jesper Ravnsgaard @ Mar 28th 2006 11:13AM]

The facts of the story:

TDC and Dansk Supermarked, the two companies calling for Apple's DRM to be opened, are iTMS biggest competitors in Denmark.

The Minster of Culture has in a response to the article, stated that they are considering new legislation in 2007 regarding DRM, and that's it.

A minister "Considering" and competitors bitching, is in my view a pretty weak story.

[Tijr @ Mar 30th 2006 5:33AM]

There is no chance in hell than Denmark is going to follow suit. The Prime minister is as close to a personal friend of Bill Gates as a prime minister can.

I know apple and microsoft aren't exaclty friends. But if there's anything the current Danish government loves - it's DRM. They even implemented that shit in the libraries, and spun off a nice trick to get the European Council to pass software patent laws against open source (later to be rejected in the European Parliament, not with much help from Danes though)

[fusk @ Jun 11th 2006 9:44PM]

bmson don't know if this has been mentioned before, but the scandinavian countries only consits of Denmark Norway and Sweden, and does not include iceland and finland, and we are in these 3 contries 21 mil people.