Apple recently announced that it had settled with the EU commission regarding the pricing difference between it's iTunes UK store and the rest of Europe (Yahoo News Article). The EU is now looking at trying to enforce a European wide online-content model. This is a good thing for the users/customers despite what some people seem to think and are writing about (see this TechDirt post). Alot of this discussion rants around what business is allowed to do or wants to do! I say horse-manure... Business is trying to protect its single local market business model, trying to avoid having to negotiate regional/global business models to make this possible. There is no financial reason/restriction stopping business in one EU country to sell to a customer in another (or the world for that matter). This is the premise of the common market model! [Note: ok I over simplify but you know what I mean...]
Despite what some have been saying it is my opinion that Europeans are in fact enlightened and want to be able to purchase and access content from their neighbors (i.e. other countries in the EU). People are interested in seeing/listening to content from their neighbors... I know of a lot of people from France, Spain, Germany and Sweden for example that want access to British music and TV shows and because it is not available through official means, they obtain them through less than correct ways.
Or take some one like me or some of my colleagues who are international and have worked/lived in and out of these different EU countries... We would like to be able to have access to the content we grew up with and love!
I really don't see why these business don't want to do this.. it would provide them with a much large market for the content!
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