Thoughts on Music: French Consumer Organization Agrees with Steve Jobs!

As we reported earlier on January 23rd, European Consumer Organizations joined forces against DRM and targeted iTunes, the official press release was as follow:

Berlin/Paris/Oslo//Helsinki
Consumer organizations from across Europe have agreed on joint positions in a legal battle with Apple to achieve consumer friendly conditions for iTunes users throughout Europe. "We will join forces to safeguard consumer interests when purchasing digital content online", the Consumer Ombudsmen in Finland and Norway, the French Consumer Organization UFC Que Choisir and the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (vzbv) declared. The four organizations agreed on a list of demands which are included in letters which all organizations wrote to iTunes today.
...
The four consumer organizations have previously initiated legal proceedings against iTunes in 2006. iTunes has been open for discussions but negotiated separately with the different national consumer organizations. The four organizations now speak with one voice and will work towards improved consumer rights and conditions for consumers throughout Europe. iTunes had also been in favor of bundling negotiations
...
Interoperability
"We believe consumers have a right to play material purchased online on a portable device of their own choice," the four organizations said. .. An interim solution could be to definitely clarify that consumers are allowed to re-rip burnt CDs to make iTunes songs playable on other devices. However this with iTunes discussed proposal will not serve as a long-term solution. "We thus urge Apple to make substantial progress towards full interoperability until the end of September 2007."
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Change of conditions
On the issue of legal terms and conditions, consumer organizations insist that iTunes revoke their clause according to which iTunes may unilaterally change their terms and conditions without seeking their customers' consent.
Liability
The joint position also refers to potential damage claims linked to content sold by iTunes: "iTunes should change its clause limiting its liability to recover consumer damages if they are caused by content sold by iTunes."
Applicable Law
The four organizations also criticize contract clauses on the law applicable in case of legal disputes: "Consumers entering into a contract with iTunes should be able to rely on the consumer protection rules according to the law of the country in which they live."

This was the first coordinated attack of those organizations against DRMs and specifically targeting Apple, wrongly identified as the main responsible player of the current DRM issue. We were already taking position, for once supporting Apple, and explaining why those organizations did not identify the true responsible part in this fight: consumer associations should NOT forget that all online music stores offer DRM-protected music tracks because Music Majors have asked for it... We doubt that Apple would have installed it on its own.
Today UFC-Que Choisir, the French consumer organization published a press release defining clear requests, and surprisingly supporting Steve jobs' comments, and even taking all points developed by apple's CEO as the basis of their claims.
Hereafter is the translation of the original text which can be found here.

UFC-Que Choisir asks the Minister of Culture and Communication to press the four main Music Majors for removing DRM associated to music tracks available from legal online music stores.
There are too many evidences proving that DRMs kills music, prevent innovations, increase risk of monopoly and proprietary protection systems. Following European Consumer Organizations, Indies, online stores, it is now Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, who recently called for a complete removal of DRM on music tracks available from online stores.
About 80% of the music production, edition and distribution are shared by 4 Music Majors which are the only ones to support DRMs.
As written in the DADVSI act (active since August 1st), it is illegal for consumers to bypass/hack DRM, so our Minister should take position and explain clearly to Music Majors that it is time to "free the music on internet".

We are happy to see the French consumer organization to finally open its eyes and identify the right targets. Let's see how our Minister will react, as the DADVSI act was voted from his initiative following pressure by the Music Majors. He will have to explain why DRMS are not a strong limitation to all consumer rights? The law is the same for all... French presidential election being in about 5 months, this topic might be seriously discussed by candidates.
Thanks Steve.
Reacts in our forum: here

[Edited and adapted by Linathael]