Technology changes so people should be able to decide to change brand of MP3 player. Purchasing from iTunes effectively ties you in to using an iPod. If next year company x introduces an iPod killer and you've purchased from iTunes you are stuck - no choice. If MS did that people would be screaming.

Deimos, Norwich,

Consumers do have a choice. Use iTunes with an iPod, or use a different mp3 source and use them on a generic MP3 player. If the iTunes / iPod concept was not beneficial to the consumer, iTunes would have failed. It didn't fail, because it provides a good service.
Gov'ts need not get involved.

David Sanford, Prague, Czech Republic

Dan from Cardif. Yes, iTunes has a say as they spent the money developing their platform. They are not dictating what format other MP3 players or services must provide. They are providing their music service for their music players.

People have the choice to use or not to use their service.

David Sanford, Prague, Czech Republic

Apple has the right to sell its music in any format that it wants, and to limit the use of any such tunes as it sees fit. That theory worked really well for the Betamax, too.

Long live p2p file sharing - Apple makes it easier to not feel bad about ripping off the labels!

Tim, Toronto, Canada

The .AAC format itunes uses can be played elsewhere, my motorola ROKR plays them fine. iTunes is the software platform for the iPod why should it use anything other than its own format?

David, Derby,

"Should I sue the makers of vinyl records because I can't play them on my iPod?"

That's a poor analogy; you can play your records on any brand of record player you want. When you bought a record, it didn't come with an exclusive agreement that it could only be played on one hardware platform.

Justin, San Antonio, USA

How easy it is to convert the music to mp3 isn't really the point here. The point is that iTunes is having the say on what format most music is downloaded and as a result only their hardware can be used to play it. Sooner or later we will find that iPod is the only music device out there

Dan, Cardiff, S. Wales

Should I sue the makers of vinyl records because I can't play them on my iPod?

Richard, Lincoln, UK

This is just stupid. As the last comment says, it is very simple to make iTunes music playable on other devices and the fact remains that apple are selling the content to be played on iPods. If the consumers want to download the music to play on other devices then why not buy it from elsewhere?

Joe , Coventry, UK

With all due respect to the Norwegian people, I believe Mr. Thon has insulted them. If my 10 year old nephew can download edit and move iTunes content to non-Apple hardware (and he does not have any training), then how come the typical Norwegian would find it "impossible or at least difficult".

David, Philadelphia, USA