NORWAY HAS AN APPLE PROBLEM

Some glum news for Steve Jobs: the hitherto almost fictional Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman has been looking at the DRM rules which force iTMS users to play their stuff on an iPod and Apple's terms and conditions, and ordered Apple to make changes.

Denmark and Sweden are also going through the small print of the Apple t&cs to see if other Scandanavians are getting a rough ride.

And if all of the Northern European nations started to complain...

... well, that could lead to a spot of potential ulcer-formation for Steve Jobs.

On the other hand, it might not: Nobody buys an iPod because they want to use the iTunes music store to buy their music, but a lot of people use the iTMS because they've bought an iPod. Jobs could point to the European rulings when next dealing with the labels to say that he's forced to make the DRM more loose on iTunes sales. Allowing music from iTMS to play on other devices could increase download sales without harming the more lucrative sales of the players.

Maybe Jobs isn't seeking the antacids just yet.

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