“US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez backed angry protests by Apple Computer over a new French law that would throw open Apple’s popular online music store to competitors,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. “Speaking on the CNBC network, Gutierrez said he needed to make further study of the copyright law passed by the French parliament’s lower house this week. ‘But any time something like this happens, any time that we believe that intellectual property rights are being violated, we need to speak up and in this case, the company is taking the initiative,’ he said. ‘I would compliment that company because we need for companies to also stand up for their intellectual property rights,’ Gutierrez said. ‘If we all do that, have the government work with other governments, have companies defend and protect their own intellectual property, then we’ll be able to make more progress on a worldwide basis.'”
Full article here.
Advertisements:
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
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
I say remove all the iPod products from France. See if they like that. Before you know it, the country will be overthrown. Idiotic lower house.
INVADE FRANCE!!
Hahaha, Office 2007 also delayed.
PICO the QT file and add your own code, fun fun!
“I have sampled every language, but french is my favorite. Fantastic language, especially to curse with: Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d’enculé de ta mère. It’s like wiping your ass with silk.”
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Seems more like a boilerplate generic statesmanspeak rather than any sort of firm backing of Apple, some times it’s hard to wade through the political gobbledy gook and figure out what some officials are really saying. This is one of those cases.
twiddle:
You’re full of twaddle.
(Yes, both twiddle and twaddle are real words.)
Interesting to see how this all unfolds.
qka – may I say for the record:
Personne n’ont jamais douté de votre utilisation intelligente de l’anglais. Ainsi, vous n’avez pas dû expliquer ou s’exposer.
So there.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue wink” style=”border:0;” />
whether we like it or not, France is an independent country and is not a state of the US
France is a state of the European Union, and by treaty France has ceded to the EU much sovereignty regarding commerce and IP.
give that man a lifetime of free itunes downloads and a new ipod every year for life
France is little further ahead than it was at the time of the Revolution. Sadly. The chip on the shoulder has proved too heavy.
If Carlos Gutierrez thinks that he knows exactly what the proposed French law means for Apple, then he’s deluding himself.
It hasn’t been made law, it’s still a proposal and may be changed considerably before it’s finally passed.
Like all laws, it’s the precise details that matter and they haven’t been finalised. As I understand it, the intention appears to be to ensure that either customers buying music in one format can’t be prevented from converting it to another – for their own use, or that companies must provide the means for music to be changed from one format to another. Some press reports interpret that as meaning that Apple will be compelled to open up AAC/FairPlay to it’s rivals, but I’ve not seen that interpretation coming from French sources.
Whatever happens, any conversion will be for personal use and users can be penalised for pirating. However, there are other aspects which have been reported which cloud the issue.
It could be argued that Apple are already in compliance with that principle as they permit AAC/FairPlay tracks to be burnt to CD, which removes the DRM and allows that music to be used on any system.
Until the required degree of inter-operation between formats is precisely defined, comments about the implications for Apple, or any other company, are merely speculation.
Tommy Boy
“France is a state of the European Union, and by treaty France has ceded to the EU much sovereignty regarding commerce and IP.”
Sadly, the French see it differently. In their view, the entire EU is there for the benefit of the French and the French only, so they conveniently ignore any aspect of membership that they don’t like.
For example, their near permanent ban on the import of British meat. Now finally shifted, but how many EU laws did France break in the process?
US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez speaking about intellectual property rights… That’s funny!
Well I am only assuming it but as it has passed the lower house its details must surely have been worked out pretty substantially unless the French Parliament works very differently to here in the UK. Sure Laws and Bills can be modified on route but usually that is more prevalent when a Bill fails to gain enough support or defeated at the first or subsequent hurdles. This one passed with a reasonable majority so I suspect that only the nitty gritty of the details will still have to be sorted out, though yes I accept that the details and how they are interpreted will/could make a substantial difference. After all the French interpretation of the new EU copyright laws is the reason this Bill was initiated in the first place.
A couple points though. Does this only apply to mobile devices or to downloads generally? If the latter then surely most (or at least a substantial amount) of DRM material will actually be played on computers and media devices in many forms in the home, certainly once the new generation of TV/stereo/media equipment comes to market. If so then how does it affect matters if WMA is dominant on these devises. Surely WMA DRM will have to be transferable to AAC and others (ATRAC) especially if some form of Windows OS is involved in these devices, other OS systems will be totally excluded. Does this Bill account for this? If not then Apple is correct to be very concerned as effectively it could damage competition rather than improve it and even take OSX and the Mac out of the competition altogether in the long term. Microsoft (and its ‘partners’) are already trying to do this, we don’t need Governments giving them a helping hand.
Interesting that you would say that, EE43, because it is exactly that same opinion they have about UK in a lot of EU countries ! (That in UK’s view, the entire EU is there for the benefit of UK)
Doesn’t Apple have enough cash on hand to buy all of France? It can’t be worth too much; the arrogance of the general population tends to reduce a country’s overall value. Besides, rather than trying to fight the sale of their country, they’ll probably just give up anyway.
Jimyoin
No mate, the way we see it, the entire world is there for our benefit, France included
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Seriously though, is this spat going to end up becoming a WTO issue?
“Doesn’t Apple have enough cash on hand to buy all of France? It can’t be worth too much; the arrogance of the general population tends to reduce a country’s overall value. Besides, rather than trying to fight the sale of their country, they’ll probably just give up anyway.”
In that case U.S.A. wouldn’t be worth a cent.
Fu#K zee Frennsh! now I feel better
Ah, I see where this thread is headed:
“The French suck.”
“No, Americans suck.”
“No, you are!”
“the arrogance of the general population tends to reduce a country’s overall value”
Hmmm, so how much does the US owe?
I still don’t understand what all the fuss is about.
1. Buy DRM music from iTMS
2. Rip to CD, using ‘Audio CD’ as Disc Format in Advanced Preferences
3. Rip back into iTunes, using MP3, AAC (unprotected), AIFF or WAV.
4. You now have the DRM AAC files, a CD continaing music that can play on ANY CD PLAYER IN THE WORLD and also some unprotected MP3 files that you can do what you like with.
Is it me, or are all governments completely retarded?
sd, Americans are more clueless than arrogant. Learn the difference.
You arrogant clueless dumbass.
AlanAudio wrote:
If Carlos Gutierrez thinks that he knows exactly what the proposed French law means for Apple, then he’s deluding himself.
Did you actually read Gutierrez’s comments? Or even the MDN synopsis? He specifically said he needed more time to study the law. Sheesh, the guy actually said the opposite of what you accused him of. Pay attention.
At least you got this part semi-right:
Until the required degree of inter-operation between formats is precisely defined, comments about the implications for Apple, or any other company, are merely speculation.
Um yeah, goes for your analysis as well, except for one specific point you conveniently ignore. The law as written does in fact require disclosure of Apple’s IP to rivals. This isn’t merely some prescriptive direction to “play nice together,” the way you make it sound. The law would take something away from Apple that is currently part of their business law, and for some of which they have international IP protection. I am reminded of what Judge Tucker once said:
No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
MW: “certain” Heh, try being a little less certain of your own correctness.