“New legislation in France would force Apple Computer to open the iPod and iTunes to competitors — and that’s a good thing for consumers, in the long run,” Leander Kahney writes for Wired News. “On Tuesday, the French parliament passed a law that would require digital content bought at any online store to be playable on any hardware. The law would be applicable to all hardware and service providers, but the immediate impact would be on Apple and iTunes, and may prompt the company to withdraw from France.”
“To many, France’s move seems patently unfair to Apple,” Kahney writes. “The company created the market for legal music downloads, why shouldn’t it dominate it? Why should the French government help competitors like Microsoft or Sony to get a foothold in a market they have proven incapable of competing in? And why should Apple be subject to antimonopoly legislation when rivals like Microsoft traditionally have not? To free marketers, it’s government meddling at its worst.”
“But French legislators aren’t just looking at Apple,” Kahney writes. “They’re looking ahead to a time when most entertainment is online, a shift with profound consequences for consumers and culture in general. French lawmakers want to protect the consumer from one or two companies holding the keys to all of its culture, just as Microsoft holds the keys to today’s desktop computers… Apple may not qualify as a literal monopoly — there are lots of ways to get music and buying online accounts for only a small fraction of total music sales. But the sliver it does control it controls almost completely, and it’s not out of the question to suggest that this sliver will ultimately become the only way people will buy music in the future.”
Full article here.
In the United States, at least, it is not illegal to build and have a monopoly; it’s illegal to abuse a monopoly. Ask Microsoft about that concept.
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Related articles:
Will Apple’s Steve Jobs bid France adieu? – March 22, 2006
Apple calls proposed French DRM law ‘state-sponsored piracy,’ predicts iPod sales increase – March 21, 2006
French National Assembly approves digital copyright bill; could affect Apple’s FairPlay DRM – March 21, 2006
Any French political reporters/analysts in the crowd? I thought so.
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This proposed legislation will NEVER take affect. All this brouhaha is distracting and adversely affecting Apples’s share price.
Now back to VISTA = Vastly Inferior System To Apple
¡Hasta la vista! Delayed again!
What MDN’s take fails to understand is that the United States is not the leader in antitrust matters anymore. Rather, the European Union is.
In the US, the Bush administration dropped the ball when it came to pursuing the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, which was initiated during the Clinton administration. The US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Comission have been toothless, especially when it comes to exacting a real remedy for past Microsoft antitrust violations and preventions of future abuses.
In contrast, it is the European Union that has pursued Microsoft for continued antitrust violations, even after the consent decrees that settled previous cases.
More broadly, the EU has taken the lead in ensuring that big business doesn’t co-opt the antitrust laws and is the government authority most feared today by multinationals.
If you don’t believe me, go ask General Electric why they abandoned their acquisition of Honeywell. These were two US-based firms, and the US Department of Justice approved the corporate acquisition, as did other regulatory agencies elsewhere in the world. But it was the European Union that blocked the takeover, at least in regards to the firms’ business in Europe.
Of course, I am fully aware that the MDN article is discussing a law about digital entertainment that is about to be passed by France in particular, and not the whole EU.
However, my point is that MDN’s take about monopolies in the United States is based not on the absence of antitrust laws, but rather on the weak enforcement of existing laws by the Bush administration in general and the US Department of Justice and FTC in particular. Should the administration change its policies, or a new administration take office, the state of antitrust violations in the United States might be very different.
Bottom line: If you’re a multinational and the EU says you’re running up against antitrust violations, you had better pay attention. The EU is a huge market, and its government packs a wallop. And pay attention to changes of administration policy or administrations in Washington. The American antitrust laws are still on the books, and should this or a future administration enforce them for real, the United States will pack a wallop too.
If it was switched around and Microsoft had developed iPod and iTunes, et al, MDN and the rest of the Macfanboys here would be screaming to the sky about Microsoft´s monopoly on music.
I must say I´m with the french on this one. And I don´t think this bill is so much about Apple´s “monopoly” advantage really. It´s more about consumers rights when purchasing digital content. I like my iPod just fine, but I would like to be able to take my music with me, legally and fuzz-free, if I should want to trade if for some fancy mobile phone or something else in the future. And until I can, I won´t buy my music from iTunes, even though I´m as big a Mac nut as the rest of you guys. Almost anyway
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I thought that I saw on MDN the other day that iTunes had 40% of the music download market in France. That is not a monopoly.
Heck, if I were Apple, I wouldnt do anything, and if sued or attacked by the french govt give them proof that all songs bought on Itunes can be played on other devices by burning a CD and reripping it as MP3’s.
They dont say that it has to be a simple process, they just say companies have to have the option.
Really its that simple.
Apple will not give there DRM away so iTunes will close in France and the piracy will begin. The record labels wouldn’t let Apple sell there music without DRM on it anyways. That was an agreement they made before iTunes became a reality or it would have never happened. And it wasn’t Apple who demanded DRM on the music it was the record labels. So France can kiss Apple’s ass all it wants but they are not going to get access to the DRM.
Maybe the French Govt could demand the opening of proprietary ‘office’ documents, too!
“Pave France – The British need More Parking!”
http://www.pavefrance.com
Just a quick thought. Itunes already has the facility to output DRM-free files, but all the Plays-for-sure don’t.
So the Napsters of this world will have to supply the facility to produce DRM-free files. Surely, it has got to be the death of subscription services.
So Microsoft will also be forced to open up it’s proprietary DRM-WMA hence PlaysForSure (on Windows-only currently) initiative as well???
The French Government needs to be fair on this new legislation! They need to hold Microsoft accountable too!
I personally am scared that once the CD is phased out and we have to buy all our music online Apple will turn off the ability to convert protected AAC’s to mp3’s. This is totaly possible as if they update iTMS you will need an uptodate version of the iTunes client to buy music. Though i still prefer the iTines business model to the M$ system of ‘renting’ music and losing access to your music if you let you’re membership lapse.
I also think people are missing the unique opportunity here while things are in flux for artists to bypass the record companies and explore alterntive bussiness models and revenue streams.