New heft for Europe's iTunes crusade

Haven't the Europeans gotten the memo about Steve Jobs doing no wrong?

First, France tried--and failed--to mandate interoperability between Apple's iTunes and rival services. Then, agencies in Norway, Denmark and Sweden accused the company's iTunes store of unfair practices by making it incompatible with other music services.

Now comes word that French and German consumer groups have joined the anti-DRM (digital rights management) cause. According to the Associated Press, French consumer lobby UFC-Que Choisir and its German counterpart, Verbraucherzentrale, have joined the Scandinavian effort, and other European countries are considering it.

Will Apple accede to Europe's demands?

Blog community response:

"Well, with Germany and France now part of this alliance, Apple may feel more pressure to crack open FairPlay. Still, with an iPod-iTunes (and now iPhone and Apple TV) monopoly possibly on the line, Apple may risk losing many of its European customers to keep their iron hold on other iTunes purchasers."
--MacUser

"I'm glad to see this issue finally gaining a lot of international attention. Apple should at least let third parties--including Microsoft--license FairPlay. Doing away with it all together is even better, if far-fetched."
--Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus

"Consumer associations should NOT forget that all online music stores offer DRM-protected music tracks because Music Majors have asked for...We doubt that Apple would have installed on its own."
--HardMac