thomas fitzgerald.net

The story (which I commented on yesterday) about the EU’s case against iTunes and the Record labels has demonstrated both a frightening lack of journalistic professionalism on the part of several websites, but more so a shocking lack of understanding of Europe and an alarming level of anti-eu sentiment from people who simply have no idea of what the European government is or does. I will not attempt to tackle that, as I believe that a sustained period of misinformation brought on by apathy for world events and political posturing has led many everyday people (both outside the EU and many inside) to completely misunderstand the European Union, its laws and its citizens.

I think it has become a fundamental problem of the way news is reported on the internet. Someone reads a story, puts their own spin on it and posts it. Someone else reads that post, and posts based on that rather than checking back the original source. People scan through stories and headlines without taking the time to understand or fully read a story, and go on to comment on it even if the posting of the posting of the posting has become distorted from the original story. And the frightening thing is this all happens in a matter of hours.

But in a further attempt to clarify some of the issues over the whole iTunes case, here is a comment I posted to O’Reilly’s web site earlier (I am certainly not an expert in EU law or it’s treaties, but this is my best understanding of the matter):

“It is amazing how the internet has totally botched up this story. The EU doesn’t care one bit if Apple charges more in one country than another. What is it the heart of this issue, is restricting sales to individual countries, which is against EU law. As a by product of this, by forcing customers only to buy in the country of their residence and by charging more in one country they are preventing customers from seeking best price across the eu, which is also against EU law.

It shold be noted that certain “services” are currently exempt from this law, namely insurance and medical services, but these are currently under negociation.

It should also be noted that the European Comission is charged with enforcing the treaties upon which the EU is built, and this case falls under that remit, as it is existing laws that were broken.

It should also be noted that stores can refuse to ship to another region, but the can not refuse to sell. If the customer arraanges their own shipping they can not refuse to sell to them. As there is no shipping involved with the iTunes store this is not an issue

Once again, just to make this absolutely clear, the EU is NOT telling Apple they have to charge the same in every country, they are telling them they can’t force customers not to be able to seek the best price by restricting sales from other EU memeber states.

People who are not familiar with the EU need to think of it like this. When it comes to trade, the EU operates much like the US. Individual member “states” can set their own taxes etc, but you can not discriminate against someone living in a different state by refusing to sell to them (at least I presume this is the case in the states)

I read a comment elsewhere that “the free market would work in an ideal world but the EU should just leave apople alone.” Again, this is a lack of understanding of the EU. The EU has laws that supercede the laws of individual states, and free trade across borders is one of them. It is not an idea, or a theory, it is Law that has been signed by member states and is fundamental to the operation of the EU.”

(As an aside, I am trying my very best not to single out any individual nationality, but some of the comments make me want to scream back in anger. Im refraining. I don’t think it is right for any one from one country to tell an other that their own way of living and government is vastly superior to theirs and everyone else’s and that everyone else is just jealous. That’s where much of the hatred and anti (insert country here) feelings come from. I may not agree with the laws and customs of another country but I will respect them for what they are, and the people for who they are. I’m certainly not out to spark a “my country is better than your country” sparring match, but if you demand respect from everyone else, the least you can do is respect others in return)