The ciggies in Sweden are cheap compared to Norway… That was my point.

The ciggies in Sweden are cheap compared to Norway… That was my point.

Then again, I’m a borderline sociopathic alcoholic, so what’re you gonna do.

The thing is, over the course of the last few days; our buddy Dan has only managed to put forth one argument. Simply put that argument is, “Norwegian law says…”

And right there is where I cease to give a crap. See; I really don’t care what the law says. Sometime laws are wrong. To take this to the hyperbolic extreme, in Saudi Arabia, female rape victims are considered adulterers, and by Saudi law are punished by flogging. This is the law, it’s also wrong. To show I’m a standup guy and bash on good old America for a bit; there are many states here with laws that state that love between two people of the same biological sex is illegal. That’s wrong too.

All ‘m saying, all I’ve ever said is: no one, whether they be in Norway, America, or the Land of fucking Oz, has a right to perfect interoperability. If you don’t like Apple’s horrid monopoly on the iTunes Music Store; then I suggest that you check out Amazon, or eMusic, or (heavens forbid) your local CD shop. You will be amazed that all of these sources work perfectly on the “closed” iPod platform.

Then again, I’m a borderline sociopathic alcoholic, so what’re you gonna do.

The thing is, over the course of the last few days; our buddy Dan has only managed to put forth one argument. Simply put that argument is, “Norwegian law says…”

And right there is where I cease to give a crap. See; I really don’t care what the law says. Sometime laws are wrong. To take this to the hyperbolic extreme, in Saudi Arabia, female rape victims are considered adulterers, and by Saudi law are punished by flogging. This is the law, it’s also wrong. To show I’m a standup guy and bash on good old America for a bit; there are many states here with laws that state that love between two people of the same biological sex is illegal. That’s wrong too.

All ‘m saying, all I’ve ever said is: no one, whether they be in Norway, America, or the Land of fucking Oz, has a right to perfect interoperability. If you don’t like Apple’s horrid monopoly on the iTunes Music Store; then I suggest that you check out Amazon, or eMusic, or (heavens forbid) your local CD shop. You will be amazed that all of these sources work perfectly on the “closed” iPod platform.

A few points:

None of which will address the root cause of the problem, because you don’t care, as long as you get to rail against the evil american corporation keeping you from your rightful music.

1) There is no Zune marketplace in Scandinavia. The other, smaller stores will likely be dealt with after Apple.

Not if Apple has no contracts with music companies. How well do you think iTunes will do sans content?

2) The ombudsman is a civil servant directly appointed by the minister. He is not a politician, and not an elected official. If Norway is like Denmark in this area — generally a reasonable assumption — only parliamentarians and local council members are elected.

A bureaucrat making a name for himself with a bunch of PR based on complete ignorance of reality. Wow, THERE’S a shock. Just like…well…the U.S. Except here, we try to avoid electionless power outside of the judiciary.

3) Any contract is based on the law, and the law defines the premises of the contract. Apple can enter into a contract to break the law all they want; they’ll still be breaking the law. Whomever Apple promised to not really sell music is irrelevant. The music was sold, so Apple is bound by local laws.

So let me understand this. All contracts that you don’t like are illegal. And, according to you, neither Apple, nor the European branches of the various record companies have no local lawyers, nor bothered to look up local laws, and based everything off of the American bar?

Because that’s what you’re saying. That companies with actual offices in the EU, and Norway, who employ nationals of the various EU/Scandanavian countries, in fact, have no idea of the local laws?

Does it maybe occur to you that possibly, your interpretation of this is oh…i don’t know…fucking stupid? Because that’s what I’m seeing, is a complete lack of awareness of how multinational companies work, combined with the idea that no one but you knows shit about Norway.

However, in a vain attempt to bring logic into this, what’s the difference between not being able to play a song from the iTMS on any device you want, and being able to put a Saab piston into any car you want? In Norway, are car companies required by law to have interchangeable parts? Because that’s a direct analogy. All parts in any industry must be effortlessly interchangeable. A song is just a part of the online music industry, and you’re demanding that they be made in a perfectly interchangeable manner. So can I buy a cheap-shit VW in Norway, and replace various parts with high-end Saab parts, and they’ll all fit and work perfectly? There’s no technical reason for that not being allowed.

Somehow I doubt I can do that.

4) In general, it is obvious that you guys are completely ignorant about how the Scandinavian societies are modelled. Even expert knowledge of American society is not sufficient to criticise European societies; knowledge of what you

I know how to finish a sentence. As well, your assumption that all americans know nothing about any country other than their own shows your rather astounding ignorance of the breadth and depth of people in this country. Here’s a hint…Fox News is not all you need to watch. Maybe you should spend some time learning about Americans before you decide what we do and do not know. It certainly beats that blind fortune teller who’s supplying your information at the moment.

5) ) Encryption is not the only factor preventing interoperability between the Wii and the PS3. Encryption is the only factor that prevents me from playing some of my music on my phone. (Which otherwise sucks.)

Well, there’s a significant hardware difference between a Zune and an iPod and a Sansa, even though they all do the same thing. Why do you allow Nintendo and Sony to use incompatible disk formats and APIs. there’s no reason why you can’t play the same game on both, in fact, the presence of multiplatform games shows there is no technical reason why this can’t happen.

As well, you do keep ignoring the fact that Apple is trying to get rid of DRM, but the record companies won’t let them. Oh, wait, that’s one of those inconvenient “facts” that you’re so studiously ignoring. You’ve made up your mind, why should facts be allowed to confuse you.

6) Neither Norway nor Sweden have cheap smokes and booze. On the contrary, actually.

If you’re representative of Norwegian men, I feel bad for the women, because it must cost them a fortune to get blasted enough to where you’re not an ignorant, self-important douchebag.

This is about whether certain behaviour is legal and permissible in our markets. You have no idea about the context, and say nothing which other equally uninformed Americans haven’t already said. I was wrong to generalise this to saying that Norway was anti-American, and I apologise for that. That being said, you guys seem unaware of the fact that you know nothing whatsoever about Scandinavia.

No, we keep pointing out that Apple is not the root cause of this problem, and you keep ignoring that because it’s inconvenient for your worldview.

And your ignorance of the USA appears to be far greater than your perceived, (and incorrect) opinion of our ignorance of Norway. (Scandinavia is a region, not a country. While Finland, Norway, and Sweden share a great deal of common history, they are not in fact the same place. Since we’re talking about the actions of a minor unelected public official in one country, let’s not drag the other two into it.)

A few points:

None of which will address the root cause of the problem, because you don’t care, as long as you get to rail against the evil american corporation keeping you from your rightful music.

1) There is no Zune marketplace in Scandinavia. The other, smaller stores will likely be dealt with after Apple.

Not if Apple has no contracts with music companies. How well do you think iTunes will do sans content?

2) The ombudsman is a civil servant directly appointed by the minister. He is not a politician, and not an elected official. If Norway is like Denmark in this area — generally a reasonable assumption — only parliamentarians and local council members are elected.

A bureaucrat making a name for himself with a bunch of PR based on complete ignorance of reality. Wow, THERE’S a shock. Just like…well…the U.S. Except here, we try to avoid electionless power outside of the judiciary.

3) Any contract is based on the law, and the law defines the premises of the contract. Apple can enter into a contract to break the law all they want; they’ll still be breaking the law. Whomever Apple promised to not really sell music is irrelevant. The music was sold, so Apple is bound by local laws.

So let me understand this. All contracts that you don’t like are illegal. And, according to you, neither Apple, nor the European branches of the various record companies have no local lawyers, nor bothered to look up local laws, and based everything off of the American bar?

Because that’s what you’re saying. That companies with actual offices in the EU, and Norway, who employ nationals of the various EU/Scandanavian countries, in fact, have no idea of the local laws?

Does it maybe occur to you that possibly, your interpretation of this is oh…i don’t know…fucking stupid? Because that’s what I’m seeing, is a complete lack of awareness of how multinational companies work, combined with the idea that no one but you knows shit about Norway.

However, in a vain attempt to bring logic into this, what’s the difference between not being able to play a song from the iTMS on any device you want, and being able to put a Saab piston into any car you want? In Norway, are car companies required by law to have interchangeable parts? Because that’s a direct analogy. All parts in any industry must be effortlessly interchangeable. A song is just a part of the online music industry, and you’re demanding that they be made in a perfectly interchangeable manner. So can I buy a cheap-shit VW in Norway, and replace various parts with high-end Saab parts, and they’ll all fit and work perfectly? There’s no technical reason for that not being allowed.

Somehow I doubt I can do that.

4) In general, it is obvious that you guys are completely ignorant about how the Scandinavian societies are modelled. Even expert knowledge of American society is not sufficient to criticise European societies; knowledge of what you

I know how to finish a sentence. As well, your assumption that all americans know nothing about any country other than their own shows your rather astounding ignorance of the breadth and depth of people in this country. Here’s a hint…Fox News is not all you need to watch. Maybe you should spend some time learning about Americans before you decide what we do and do not know. It certainly beats that blind fortune teller who’s supplying your information at the moment.

5) ) Encryption is not the only factor preventing interoperability between the Wii and the PS3. Encryption is the only factor that prevents me from playing some of my music on my phone. (Which otherwise sucks.)

Well, there’s a significant hardware difference between a Zune and an iPod and a Sansa, even though they all do the same thing. Why do you allow Nintendo and Sony to use incompatible disk formats and APIs. there’s no reason why you can’t play the same game on both, in fact, the presence of multiplatform games shows there is no technical reason why this can’t happen.

As well, you do keep ignoring the fact that Apple is trying to get rid of DRM, but the record companies won’t let them. Oh, wait, that’s one of those inconvenient “facts” that you’re so studiously ignoring. You’ve made up your mind, why should facts be allowed to confuse you.

6) Neither Norway nor Sweden have cheap smokes and booze. On the contrary, actually.

If you’re representative of Norwegian men, I feel bad for the women, because it must cost them a fortune to get blasted enough to where you’re not an ignorant, self-important douchebag.

This is about whether certain behaviour is legal and permissible in our markets. You have no idea about the context, and say nothing which other equally uninformed Americans haven’t already said. I was wrong to generalise this to saying that Norway was anti-American, and I apologise for that. That being said, you guys seem unaware of the fact that you know nothing whatsoever about Scandinavia.

No, we keep pointing out that Apple is not the root cause of this problem, and you keep ignoring that because it’s inconvenient for your worldview.

And your ignorance of the USA appears to be far greater than your perceived, (and incorrect) opinion of our ignorance of Norway. (Scandinavia is a region, not a country. While Finland, Norway, and Sweden share a great deal of common history, they are not in fact the same place. Since we’re talking about the actions of a minor unelected public official in one country, let’s not drag the other two into it.)

1) There is no Zune marketplace in Scandinavia. The other, smaller stores will likely be dealt with after Apple. 2) The ombudsman is a civil servant directly appointed by the minister. He is not a politician, and not an elected official. If Norway is like Denmark in this area — generally a reasonable assumption — only parliamentarians and local council members are elected. 3) Any contract is based on the law, and the law defines the premises of the contract. Apple can enter into a contract to break the law all they want; they’ll still be breaking the law. Whomever Apple promised to not really sell music is irrelevant. The music was sold, so Apple is bound by local laws. 4) In general, it is obvious that you guys are completely ignorant about how the Scandinavian societies are modelled. Even expert knowledge of American society is not sufficient to criticise European societies; knowledge of what you 5) Encryption is not the only factor preventing interoperability between the Wii and the PS3. Encryption is the only factor that prevents me from playing some of my music on my phone. (Which otherwise sucks.) 6) Neither Norway nor Sweden have cheap smokes and booze. On the contrary, actually.

This is about whether certain behaviour is legal and permissible in our markets. You have no idea about the context, and say nothing which other equally uninformed Americans haven’t already said. I was wrong to generalise this to saying that Norway was anti-American, and I apologise for that. That being said, you guys seem unaware of the fact that you know nothing whatsoever about Scandinavia.

(Friday. One out of two. Sigh.)

1) There is no Zune marketplace in Scandinavia. The other, smaller stores will likely be dealt with after Apple. 2) The ombudsman is a civil servant directly appointed by the minister. He is not a politician, and not an elected official. If Norway is like Denmark in this area — generally a reasonable assumption — only parliamentarians and local council members are elected. 3) Any contract is based on the law, and the law defines the premises of the contract. Apple can enter into a contract to break the law all they want; they’ll still be breaking the law. Whomever Apple promised to not really sell music is irrelevant. The music was sold, so Apple is bound by local laws. 4) In general, it is obvious that you guys are completely ignorant about how the Scandinavian societies are modelled. Even expert knowledge of American society is not sufficient to criticise European societies; knowledge of what you 5) Encryption is not the only factor preventing interoperability between the Wii and the PS3. Encryption is the only factor that prevents me from playing some of my music on my phone. (Which otherwise sucks.) 6) Neither Norway nor Sweden have cheap smokes and booze. On the contrary, actually.

This is about whether certain behaviour is legal and permissible in our markets. You have no idea about the context, and say nothing which other equally uninformed Americans haven’t already said. I was wrong to generalise this to saying that Norway was anti-American, and I apologise for that. That being said, you guys seem unaware of the fact that you know nothing whatsoever about Scandinavia.

(Friday. One out of two. Sigh.)