Europe Not Humming Apple's iTune

Norway's consumer ombudsman said recently that iTunes violates the country's consumer-protection laws and that Apple has until October to open up its music store or end up in court, Staeuber says. Meanwhile, consumer organizations in Germany, France and Finland have joined the Norwegian consumer ombudsman in his demand for interoperability.

France has introduced an interoperability clause in its copyright law that would require DRM-protected products (such as Apple's) to disclose interoperability information to its competitors if the rival wants to introduce a compatible product, Staeuber says. France created a special agency to oversee the process.

A previous antitrust case in France between Apple and VirginMedia, where Virgin demanded that Apple license its DRM, ended in Apple's favor partly because the French competition authority found "the market was sufficiently competitive," he says. "Whether the authority would now say that Apple is dominant and should therefore display interoperability is an open question."

Apple observers say there are things the company could do now to show it's serious about selling unchained music, which could help Apple's position in Europe.

"I think he's being truthful about everything that he [Jobs] says -- DRM is broken, it's not an effective business strategy, and it was part of the deal the major label required," EFF's Schultz says.

But if Jobs really wants to take a stand, he could make the DRM optional for independent artists who sell their music in iTunes, and are not bound by the labels' copyrights, Schultz says.