“France is pushing through a law that would force Apple Computer Inc. to open its iTunes online music store and enable consumers to download songs onto devices other than the computer maker’s popular iPod player,” Astrid Wendlandt reports for Reuters. “Under a draft law expected to be voted in parliament on Thursday, consumers would be able to legally use software that converts digital content into any format.”
“It would no longer be illegal to crack digital rights management — the codes that protect music, films and other content — if it is to enable to the conversion from one format to another, said Christian Vanneste, Rapporteur, a senior parliamentarian who helps guide law in France,” Wendlandt reports. “‘It will force some proprietary systems to be opened up … You have to be able to download content and play it on any device,’ Vanneste told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday. Music downloaded from Apple’s iTunes online music store currently can only be played on iPods. The law, if enacted, could prompt Apple to shut its iTunes store in France, some industry observers say, to keep from making songs vulnerable to conversion outside France, too.”
“‘The person who will have converted iTunes songs will be able to make it available elsewhere,’ Marc Guez, head of the French Collecting Society for Music Producers rights (SCPP) told Reuters. Apple officials in France and Britain did not return calls seeking comment. The law would also mean that other online French music retailers such as Fnac, part of PPR, would have to make iTunes songs available on their Web sites.”
Full article here.
Are the French going to pass a law that forces Sony to release PlayStation games for Microsoft’s Xbox on the same day? Who’s writing the law that requires Autodesk to release the French version of AutoCAD for Mac OS X or the one that forces French website developers to stop developing Microsoft Internet Explorer-only websites?
A song is a song is a song. If you want the latest Britney Spears song to play on the Creative or iRiver player that Grandma mistakenly got you for Christmas, what’s stopping you from buying it from, shudder, Napster or whatever outfit still happens to be in business? And what about exclusives? How would the French handle that one? If iTunes – or Napster for that matter – has a deal to offer an exclusive song from an artist to drive customers to their stores, how “exclusive” is it? Remember, in Apple’s case, iTunes exclusives are also there to sell iPods. If those songs can be played anywhere (let’s pretend that the songs aren’t stripped of their DRM and up on P2P within minutes anyway), doesn’t that damage the exclusivity agreement beyond repair?
This unjust law would unfairly damage one party, Apple, that has worked hard and fairly to win the market while disproportionally benefitting all of the loser outfits that couldn’t compete with Apple in the open market. How would France compensate Apple?
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Let the French pass this law. It’s their country after all. As for Apple, they should do nothing. This is a problem for the content providers, not the distributors. Content providers won’t give away their property without some means of protecting against piracy. All this law will do is force the providers to curtail online sales in France. Not just Apple, but Napster and all of the other also rans.
When the content providers act, Apple will close their store in France and the blame will go to the government and the content providers. Ipods will still sell because they’re the best players, and they French will have to buy and rip CDs.
Given that none of the large content providers are French, this will be giving the French government what they really want anyway. A French solution providing French-only content online. I wouldn’t be surprised if Thompson or some other French media conglomerate was really behind this.
This law will die. Are they going to ask all razor makers to accept all razor blades? How about printers and ink/toner cartridges? Or those little coffee makers and their OEM “coffee pods?” Why not force Renault to be compatible with GM transmissions. Why not make all diesel cars compatible with gasoline?
And like the record companies are going to sit around while the average user can convert any file to any format, willy nilly. (That would actually be cool but it will never happen.)
If this goes through, I may pull my daughter out of French language school. If the French education system creates lawmakers such as these, you gotta think they are heading down ze hill.
Steve Job’s List of Things to Do Tomorrow:
1. Stop packaging products with French translation
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2. Stop all plans of opening stores in France
3. Stop selling hardware in France
4. Stop selling software in France
5. Stop all downloads to IPs registered to French telcos
6. Block French telco IPs from accessing Apple web site (all links to IPs in France reference taking a train to England Apple store for purchasing products)
7. No longer ship products to France – make them pick up products at England Apple store via train
8. Call Jaque Shitrock, President of France, and conference in Creative Labs President and help them strike a deal that would give Creative Labs some marketshare, since they can’t get any with their own product
8. Order a Royale with Cheese and enjoy!
People, raise the boycott flag now!
Typical of the french, like their battle tanks with one forward gear and 5 reverse gears… pompous a**es. Just like the time they tried to make it a required law that all air traffic in/out/over france would be conducted in french… against the IATA regs requiring english in international aviation communications for consistency and safety… I’d say just turn off iTMS in france, and see if they require the protected wma files all the other electronic music sellers offer to be compatible with iPod hardware… unlikely. Hypocrites!!
Pull out of France. They are a tiny market anyway. And they certainly can’t make their own music.
I see Apple dropping their French Connection if this goes through…
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Aren’t the words French Law used together an oxymoron?
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No wonder Hornblower & Bolitho despised the French! (Even if it was old Boney’s crew) Nothing they do makes sense.
All of these comparisons of razors, games, coffee filters do not apply…
If Gillette makes razors, they can sell those razors to fit on any handle they choose.. they are making the RAZORS!
Apple however, is not the creator of the music they sell. That’s the difference.
While I applaud the idea, it does open a can of worms.
Suppose, just for laughs, Apple removed the DRM and sent you music with AAC encoding. Well, your iRivers and Creatives won’t play it. This is not “digital rights management”, this is just a codec which is superior to the prevalent MP3 codec. Should Apple be forced to sell music encoded in MP3? Should iRiver and Creative be forced to support AAC-encoded audio?
I like the idea that circumventing DRM for the purpose of converting formats is valid. If I want to play my iTMS purchased music on my iRiver or Sony player, I shouldn’t be breaking the law. Hell, as I mentioned, I used Audio Hijack to rerecord some music videos that I purchased from iTMS so that I could burn the audio onto CDs–iTunes won’t let me do this.
But I’d leave it at that.
Rasterbator – isn’t SJ a vegan? Or would this cause him to have a change of heart?
mmmmm….. french fries!
Tre,
just to let you know, music purchased from the iTMS can be played on any device. I use my purchases on my thinkpad laptop, my mac mini, my portable cd player, my girlfriends car, my car, my friend’s tower pc, and I guess if I had an iriver or creative mp3 player, i’d probably just play them on that too. Maybe you can figure out how this works, cause i’m too tired to explain it to you… <hint – it involves a piece of FREE software called iTunes, available on both major consumer computing platforms… is this any different from Windows and their media player? where I can’t play their protected tracks on iTunes?? jeeesh!>
Since the issue seems to be accessability, they should make it a law that any customer from any country could buy music from online French music stores. heh. That would really open some doors.
I believe motorcraft spark plugs, oil filters, etc. do fit GM…
If French governement is able to pass the law (I’m sure Apple will appeal to WTO), may be Apple can modify iTunes to support other MP3 players, so iTMS will sell more tunes. Since there are very few non-iPod MP3 players, they won’t sell that many more tunes, but at this point, Apple will be better off having people continue use iTune than worrying about iPod sales (I doubt iPod sales will be affected by iTunes supporting non-iPod MP3 players any more. Also people who are fool enough to buy non-iPod MP3 players, they will use iTMS, so they feel more secure about the future of their purchases).
This is a brilliant law, but the title is completely wrong. This law would not force Apple to sell Windows-DRM compatible music, nor would it force Napster to sell music compatible with the iPod. All it would do is allow individuals who have already purchased music to strip the DRM off the songs if they want to use it in a non-compatible player. As a matter of fact, this law is basically redundant (except as an FU to the DRM gods) because you can already strip the DRM from any of these songs by burning them to a CD and then ripping them again. Of course, it would be slightly better because you wouldn’t lose any sound quality in the process.
CLARITY IS NEEDED HERE!
This article is very ambiguous. I can’t tell if it’s a translation issue or if the author doesn’t understand the technology.
The author states that the law allows people to legally use software to convert iTMS files so that they can play on nonPods.
That’s a hell of a lot different than saying that Apple may be forced to open up the iTMS to nonPods (in France), or shut down.
The author also writes:
“The law would also mean that other online French music retailers such as Fnac…, would have to make iTunes songs available on their Web sites.”
OK, so what the heck does that mean? Again, does that mean that the same law that makes FairPlay file conversion software legal also make Janus file conversion software legal? (I suspect that’s what’s going on here).
So I suspect, that all the law does is legalize the software small minorities of people are already using to transcode/DRM-strip FairPlay or Janus. That’s no biggie.
The author does imply somehow that it’s a lot more than that, as if Apple needs to shut down in France or license FairPlay both to nonPods and to online services. He doesn’t back up this implication with any text from the proposed law.
Yukkin my head off..
I am well aware of the workaround of burning to cd and reimporting… But it is a workaround..
The bottom line is a reseller should not be able to put restrictions on what type of device content can be played on if they are not the owner of that content…
Apple has the right to develop Mac only software, because it is THEIR SOFTWARE.. However, they should not be able to sell someone else’s content and restrict it to play on play on their device ONLY.
Lousy cheese-eating surrender monkeys!
Apple should just close the iTunes Music Store in France. That country makes FAR to much noise considering how insignificant it has become in the global arena.
Unbelievable – “And like the record companies are going to sit around while the average user can convert any file to any format, willy nilly. (That would actually be cool but it will never happen.)”
Actually… it already can happen. Any cd can be ripped into basically any format, at any bitrate, etc that you want, using a variety of codecs already out there. So, for protected ACC or WMA files, just burn to cd, and re-rip. At this point, sure, the quality ain’t exactly master tapes, but it certainly is not that bad a hit from what you start with… and the music is available. Nobody guaranteed transferability of original master quality anyway…
Tre,
Yup, burning and re-ripping is a workaround. So what? The music is available. Nothing prevents it from being played on alternative brand products, from mp3 players to cd players to computers, etc. etc. Bottom line here, there are competing DRM systems out there, and nobody’s bitching about one of them… and it even restricts its player to Windows OS, unlike Fairplay. I don’t see the damage done to the consumer which would warrant forcing a company to give up their advantage in a hardware marketplace. It’s just a simple conversion step, if you have to have an iRiver… so go for it. But a LAW?? gimme a break.
Thank you Tre.
RAZOR COMPARISONS ARE NOT THE SAME. APPLE IS NOT A RECORD COMPANY. THEY DON’T MAKE MUSIC.
Don’t the French worship Jerry Lewis?