“The French National Assembly approved a digital copyright bill on Tuesday that will require DRM (digital rights management) developers to reveal details of their technology to rivals that wish to build interoperable systems. The bill could affect the FairPlay DRM used by Apple Computer Inc. in its iTunes Music Store and iPod music players, and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media DRM, used by rival French music stores Fnac.com and Virginmega.fr to lock downloaded tracks to particular music players,” Peter Sayer reports for IDG News Service. “Deputies voted to approve the bill, ‘Authors’ rights and related rights in an information society,’ by 286 votes to 193. The bill now goes to the Senate for a second reading [expected to begin in early May], and a vote, before it becomes law.”
Full article here.
“Apple has so far refused to comment on the bill or on analysts’ suggestions that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company might choose to withdraw from the French online music market rather than share the proprietary technology at the heart of its business model. Representatives for Apple France did not return calls Tuesday,” Laurence Frost reports for The Associated Press. “Under the bill, companies would be required to reveal the secrets of hitherto-exclusive copy-protection technologies such as Apple’s FairPlay format and the ATRAC3 code used by Sony’s Connect store and Walkman players. That could permit consumers for the first time to download music directly to their iPods from stores other than iTunes, or to rival music players from iTunes France.”
Full article here.
Earlier this morning, MacDailyNews reader “john” wrote us with an interesting idea. “The French can’t specifically force Apple to give up selling AAC files specifically, but it can force it to find a way to make its iPod [and iTunes Store] somehow interoperable with other [services and devices] in France. Apple could provide its French customers exclusively with a collection of its iTunes catalog in the MP3 format in addition to providing the same catalog in the AAC format (MP3’s with whatever DRM that may or may not be required as per the music labels desire, since the music labels seem to be ok with this new idea). And in the iTune’s download interface for French users only, allow they to choose whichever format they wanted- be it AAC or MP3. If Apple’s competitors wanted to sell files that worked seamlessly with the iPod, all they’d have to do is to provide those files in the MP3 format. Beyond that, everything else would remain exactly the same. In all the ways that matters, Apple would be in full compliance with the new French law, Apple’s competitors would still not have direct access to either FairPlay or the iPod, and there’d be nothing the French could do about it.
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Why would any company just walk away from revenue? Apple isn’t going to withdraw from France just because of this law. They’re likely going to fight it in court. Like MacDude points out, iTunes users already have interoperability options.
It’s hard to judge though since the media outlets are so vague about the particulars. I don’t know how accurate this is: “[…] the bill will force DRM manufacturers to reveal some details of their systems […]”
What really bugs me are the other implications of the law as described in these articles.
[…] it will also legalize the use of DRM in France. Today, CDs with a DRM function that prevents them from playing on some equipment are considered legally to have concealed flaws, and buyers have a right to legal redress. The bill will change that.
In addition, the bill will make it illegal to develop, distribute or promote P-to-P (peer-to-peer) software for purposes other than collaborative working, research purposes or the exchange of noncommercial works. In addition, if French Internet users are found to have traded illicit files using such software, they will face a fine of $46 per infraction for downloading, or $182 per infraction for uploading. The bill calls on the Council of State to determine what level of trading constitutes an infraction.
(My emphasis)
The first part is reasonable, I guess, since the DRM would have to be somewhat open in the first place. The second part is rather rude though. I’m no fan of P2P but this sounds awful. I’d hate to think what measures are allowed for non-payment, especially if something like this ends up in US legislation.
Wow, lots of good ideas amist the garbage.
1. The French contribution to the war of independance, a sample:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/sfelshin/saintonge/frhist.html
2. gzero said “French law that requires that a minimum of 50% of ALL music played on French radio stations be in French, as a means to “preserve French identity”. Such a law does not exist anywhere else in the Western world.”
When I was doing radio the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission) required that a 1/3 of the songs be of Canadian content. I suspect other countries have such laws to protect and promote their culture.
3. The peer to peer infractions are pretty kewl actually, if they beef up the penalties that will send people to the legitimate download sources.
4. The new law should work both ways, Fairplay and whatever crap the others use. A standard might be good, who knows but whatever this law will affect all DRM, which a lot of people don’t like (remember Sony’s attempts with DRM). The media focus is on Apple but it’s an attempt (probably not a good one) to deal with the copyright dilema of the digital age.
5. I still like Canada’s approach. It’s all legal, we are taxed for it when we buy hard drives and CD’s. Everybody pays, everyone can play.
Apple will simple come out with the:
iFry
Hey guys, back off the French. If they didn’t open up their proprietary deep fat potatoe frying technology McDonalds might not be around today.
So here appears to be where it stands:
a) Someone downloading an AAC file can burn a CD and re-encode into MP3 format. (A good idea posted above to encode to MP3 directly to the harddrive would circumvent the law)
b) iTunes allows MP3s that I rip from CD’s or DL from other stores to play on the iPod via iTunes. If there is DRM involved, those other companies will need to create tools to convert to MP3s without DRM. Apple just needs to allow music without DRM to play and by currently allowing MP3’s without DRM to play on iPods I don’t think that the iPod can legally be forced to play every frickin’ music format on earth. That’s just plain retarded to expect that.
Not sure what all the fuss is about as I can do both a) and b) now. Therefore, Apple already complies unless the ‘burning to CD and then ripping into non-DRM MP3 files’ needs to occur direct to drive instead (easy fix). As this CAN all be done now, I fail to see why Apple would need to panic at all.
Now I am getting back to eating my french fries thank you very much…
Cheers,
Viva Pomfrits de France
Daniel-san, what is, or was, called French fries in the US has absolutely nothing to do with France or any French.