by , 11:10 AM EST, January 24th, 2007

Norway's Consumer Ombudsman has ruled that Apple's FairPlay digital rights management technology violates the country's laws by locking songs downloaded from the iTunes Store to the iPod. OUT-LAW.com reports that the Ombudsman wrote a letter to Apple warning that the its DRM technology must be opened to competitors.

Torgeir Waterhouse, senior advisor at Norway's Consumer Council, commented "iTunes Music Store must remove its illegal lock-in technology or appear in court. As of right now we're heading for a big breakthrough that will hopefully pave the way for consumers everywhere to regain control of music they legally purchase."

Norway's government determined that DRM is considered a part of the contract terms for downloading music, and not just copy protection. As such, FairPlay falls under the Norwegian Marketing Control Act requiring balanced and fair rights for the consumer. In this case, "balanced and fair" is being interpreted to mean that music purchased at the iTunes Store should be directly supported on all MP3 players.

Bjorn Erik Thon, Norway's Consumer Ombudsman, first notified Apple that the licensing terms for downloaded songs conflicted with the country's laws in June 2006. Apple was given until August 1 to reply to the complaint.

Mr. Thon feels that the only options open to Apple are licensing FairPlay to any company that wants to produce iTunes Store-compatible players, develop an open standard DRM technology with other companies, or drop its DRM technology completely. He did, however, miss another option open to Apple: Shutting down Norway's iTunes Store.

Removing the copy protection technology that is already in place probably won't sit well with recording labels that are already concerned about music piracy and slowing CD sales. But the idea of selling DRM-free songs is something that the labels are at least beginning to think about.

The situation in Norway is likely to get sticky for Apple and other legitimate music download services, especially since Sweden and Denmark are supporting Norway, and recently French and German consumer groups began openly showing support, too. Should Norway force Apple to open its DRM technology, the move would eventually cascade out to other companies using proprietary copy protection schemes, including Microsoft and Sony.