“Take a complicated issue such as copyrights in the Digital Age. Throw in a generous helping of French politics and stir it with a dash of socialist ideology. The resulting concoction might not taste very good to executives of Apple Computer, and indeed could force the computer maker to change the way it does business in the Fifth Republic,” Arik Hesseldahl writes for BusinessWeek. “On Mar. 16, France’s National Assembly is expected to vote on legislation known as the author’s rights law. Among its many provisions, the bill calls for lightening the punishment on unauthorized downloads of copyrighted music.”
“If passed — which some say is unlikely — the legislation would also require digital music vendors like Apple, Vivendi Universal, and Virgin Megastores, which all operate music-download services in France, to sell music that is compatible with all media players. This provision would hit Apple particularly hard because the computer maker sells music that is compatible only with its own iPod player,” Hesseldahl writes.
“Apple doesn’t give a geographic breakdown of the results of its iTunes or iPod operations. Its overall European division reported a $174 million operating profit on sales of a little more than $1.2 billion in the most recent quarter. Apple sold more than 14 million iPod players around the world and 387,000 of its Macintosh computers in Europe in the same period. In February, Apple said it had sold 1 billion songs via its iTunes store over the course of its three-year history, though it hasn’t said how many of those were in France, home to 62 million people,” Hesseldahl writes. “If passed, the author’s rights law would be a hazard of doing business in the land of liberte, egalite, and fraternite — or in the case of Apple, a good reason not to.”
Full article here.
Yesterday, we covered an Agence France-Presse report that said that lawmakers from France’s ruling conservative party have blocked a move to legalize Internet downloading of movie and music files, after several days of sharp debate in parliament. We’ll have to wait for the official vote tomorrow to know for sure.
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Related articles:
Law that could have forced Apple to open iTunes Music Store to non-iPod devices blocked in France – March 14, 2006
French law would force Apple to open iTunes Music Store to non-iPod devices – March 13, 2006
Stupid. No wonder why France sucks. Seriously, after their dealings with Iraq, you have to wonder what else they are up to. Perhaps something with Iran? China?
France sucks.
MDN Magic Word: “Although” as in “Although…France does have some nice wines”
Something tells me France wont have access to iTunes if this passes.
if apple opens it for france, they in effect open it for the world.
I agree with TT.. shut the french site down, they’ll surrender, they always do.
France sucks ? “..after dealings with Iraq…”
WTF ? Please do your history. How many years ago is it since Saddam was a friend an an alied of USA ? Please tell me you know… I guess you say “freedom-fries” too …
Apple would pull the iTunes Music store out if they do pass that law. I’m sure the record industry would demand Apple do so if this law was passed. Either way the french won’t get free rain to iTunes.
yeah, surely headline should read:
“If passed, French law would force Apple to not sell music to the French”
Send in our boardmember Al Gore to speak to them, as he is so good at!
chris (1st poster) what a stupid thing to say – i think we can all safely say france was right about iraq cant we
Please, folks, no France bashing again. This is about our rights as consumers. The law will allow people to strip the DRM on their legally purchased music and to translate the music files into other fomats, i.e. .wma to AAC or vice versa. Meaning, if you have an iPod and some small MP3 player, you won’t have to purchase the music twice. That’s all.
And, my dear American friends, you owe the French your Liberties, both the independence from Britain and the statue.
No, I’m not French.
Seems like iTunes is unfairly targeted. Still, France is one messed up country. I hear they are trying to legalize P2P sharing as well. Perhaps this is the new communisim?
Serious question. How much revenue would be lost? Especially since they are talking about the French iTMS, not the sale of iPods. This sounds like a toothless bluff (see below). If not, big loss? Probably not.
“France Passes New Law..”
Next Day
“Apple Pulls France iTunes Store”
How is this news different from the same news two days ago?
Apple lawyer to French Judge: “Your honor, you can already play any iTunes purchased song on any other player. Let me demonstrate. What song would you like me to purchase from the iTunes Music Store? Surrender by U2, hmm, intersting choice. OK, so here I buy it, download it, burn it to a CDR, rip the song from the CD using Windows Media Player and tranfer it to this crappy Creative NOMAD mp3 player. See, you can do it already. No need to change anything.” Fini!
Simple solution: sell non-protected AAC files (oh, alright, MP3 for compatiblity). Of course, since the record labels won’t like that, the only songs for sale will be French songs; but hey, the French artists would like that, right?
Then France had better freakin’ force Micrapsoft to have Winduhs Media Player upgrades for Mac and Explorer and whatever it is that is on VH1’s site that isn’t Mac Accessible.
Chris; Eric:
Shut the fsck up with your attacks on the French, I’m sick of it on this forum. You are both obviously Americans, totally ignorant of the world outside your own borders!
“France sucks”. What assholes you both are! 60% of the language you’re speaking is of French origin. The French government supported the Americans in the Revolutionary War – against the English King.
And the US regime changes sides faster than a whore drops her pants for money. And it’s always for money. The French were right about Iraq, the Germans were right about Iraq, the British [people] were right about Iraq.
Hey, Americans – the rest of the world is getting sick of your imperialism – clean your own fucking cities instead of employing slave workers. Oh yes, and the rest of the world doesnt like being tied to a big US corporation in order to listen to the music they have purchased,
hagar57:
Your reply— “And, my dear American friends, you owe the French your Liberties, both the independence from Britain and the statue.
No, I’m not French.”
Excuse me? Who owes what liberties? I’d rather be speaking Brittanese and driving on the wrong side of the road, than speaking GERMAN and saluting Adolf Hitler. Being ruled by the Brittish is nothing compared to what life would have been like in France if it wasn’t for many dead US soldiers from D-Day and the rest of WWII bailing their wimpy French asses out of German occupation.
Debts been paid as far as I’m concerned.
you are the ones dealing with the Chineses you fool , you are the ones who put Saddam in power , read your history . The french are in Afganistan
helping you ,the right place , where they should be helping
The Russians did more to combat Hitler than America ever did. The Americans waited till the war was almost won before even turning up! And of course have done a very good job of supporting dictators the world over ever since.
Now, Now, play nice.!!
So much argueing over such a non issue. If it happens, now or later, it happens. Apple will deal with it. Most likely by doing something like RePlay suggested. (Nice touch there RePlay.
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Hey. My suggestion. If you like a product, buy it. If not, don’t.
If you ask for milk, with ice, in a disposible cup, fine. Just don’t complain about abusing cows, wasting energy and altering natures products, and environmental issues while you are having your ice cold milk in styrofoam cup.
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N.
America gets more right wing by the day. It was the French who gave the USA the Statue of Liberty and a very big chunk of the Norht American continent!
I am constantly amazed at how juvenile the majority of posters are at this forum. Anyway…if what Hagar said is in fact true:
“The law will allow people to strip the DRM on their legally purchased music and to translate the music files into other fomats, i.e. .wma to AAC or vice versa. Meaning, if you have an iPod and some small MP3 player, you won’t have to purchase the music twice. That’s all.”
then this is a good thing. In fact, if Apple were more concerned about their customers than their profits, they would have adopted a universal standard that is not owned by a single entity.
No sweat. Apple will have a way to monetize it, a slick concept to promote it, and a simple and seamless interface to impliment it. They always do.