“The French Senate approved a new copyright bill yesterday, but amended it to soften a requirement for digital music vendors such as Apple Computer to open up their DRM (digital rights management) technologies to competitors,” Peter Sayer reports for IDG News Service. “The text of the bill approved by senators on Wednesday retains the principle of DRM interoperability, but opens a loophole allowing companies to keep their technology secret… Senators weakened the bill’s blanket requirement that vendors give details of their DRM technology to those wishing to develop interoperable systems. Instead, they voted to create a new regulatory authority responsible for mediating requests for such details.”

“The authority will have the power to order companies to share details of their DRM, but companies will be able to refuse as long as their DRM systems only limit usage of digital music or movies in a way approved by the author or copyright holder,” Sayer reports. “Developers of open source software seeking to make their code interoperable with DRM-protected systems and files will also face a challenge: DRM technology owners will be allowed to prohibit publication of source code developed using the details they provide, if they can show that such publication would seriously affect the security and effectiveness of their DRM system.”

Full article here.

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