Apple "unfairly" blocking rival music stores

 

Gallery

Posted on 4 Dec 2008 at 08:29

Apple is unfairly blocking rival software makers who want to sell music for iPods and the iPhone, according to would-be competitors.

The iTunes store accounts for four out of five songs sold on the internet in the US and is becoming increasingly important as CDs fade. A milestone was reached last month when Atlantic Records announced digital sales had surpassed CD sales.

Now rivals and a technology rights group are concerned Apple is being overly aggressive. Competitors are worried by the way in which Apple directs iPod and iPhone customers to its iTunes store, but makes it very difficult for rival services to operate on the device.

Susan Kevorkian of IDC says Apple is facing more vigorous competition, saying Amazon.com has ramped up usage of its service in a scant 10 months and Wal-Mart Stores have also captured market share. Apple also has a few smaller rivals for iTunes, including include WinAmp, gtkpod for Linux and Songbird.

"We love Apple's products," says Rob Lord, chief executive of Songbird, which makes software designed to run on iPods, or any other music player. "Users should have the choice of the iTunes store or somebody else's store," Lord says.

Apple felt compelled to act against one such service last month, amid concerns its copyright was violated. Apple told the operator of website bluwiki.com to remove postings that talked about ways to work around an Apple file, known as iTunesDB. Apple said copyright law prohibited such talk.

People such as Lord need to use iTunesDB for their software to work properly with the iPhone and iPod touch, both of which have protected versions of iTunesDB.

Sam Odio, operator of bluwiki, disliked the Apple notice, but did what it demanded, removing several postings. "When a lawyer calls you up and implicitly threatens litigation that would bankrupt your little project you obviously have no choice but to comply," he says.

The technology rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation has taken on Odio as a non-paying client to see if it can protect his freedom to post. "This is a pure attack on interoperability," says Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer for the Foundation.

He claims that, until a year ago, iPods worked well with many kinds of music software. "In October of last year, they added [software] which has no purpose other than to prevent applications other than iTunes from working," he adds.

Von Lohmann says court precedents make it clear others have a right to write software for iPods and iPhones.

Apple declined to comment, but its lawyer wrote to a competitor and claims the company is merely defending its rights under copyright law.

Analysts don't believe the smaller rivals pose a real threat to Apple's exclusive approach to music marketing. "This may not be a big deal in the long run. Most people who go to alternatives probably wouldn't have bought songs from iTunes in the first place," says Michael Gartenberg with Jupiter Media.

Author: Barry Collins and Reuters