“It didn’t take long for the new French DRM legislation to get spoiled in committee, and you can’t blame French consumers for expecting canard à l’orange and being served some very dodgy escargot instead,” Nate Anderson reports for Ars Technica. “No one was surprised when the proposed French law was trashed by Apple as ‘state-sponsored piracy.’ There was even speculation that Apple might leave France altogether rather than risk opening its Fairplay system. It looks like the French will still get to keep their iTunes Music Store, though, since the original bill was recently gutted in committee. Most of the consumer-friendly provisions in the legislation have since been removed or rewritten.”
“The new changes will be voted on soon, but they already have some French consumer groups up in arms. As anyone who has ever relied on RATP to get to work knows, the French are very, very gifted in the art of the strike, and stopdrm.info has called for one in the Place de la Bastille on May 7. Will anyone show up? Perhaps. 22 percent of under-25 workers are unemployed, and they’re willing to take to the streets. If they’re as concerned about DRM as about having jobs for life, the rally could be huge,” Anderson reports.
More details in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Too Hot!” for the heads up.]
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Related articles:
Force open Apple’s FairPlay? What has possessed the French this time? – April 27, 2006
French Trade Minister: Apple’s iTunes must play fair in French music market – April 14, 2006
JP Morgan: French DRM law will have limited impact on Apple Computer – March 28, 2006
Dvorak: What the French got right with proposed DRM law – March 28, 2006
Will Apple’s Steve Jobs bid France adieu? – March 22, 2006
Wired’s Kahney: Proposed French copyright protection law a good thing for consumers in the long run – 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
Eat frogs. AAAAARRRRGHHHHHH!
“Most of the consumer-friendly provisions in the legislation have since been removed or rewritten…”
translation: Most of the anti-business and pro-theft provisions have been removed.
Jobs for LIFE? Didn’t the Soviet Union try that?
Now, Steve Jobs for life? I’d vote for that!
LOL
All through this debacle, I’ve tried to warn readers not to get too heated up over this story.
It’s very common for the French legislature to make proposals which sound very far-reaching, while the actual finalised laws bear minimal resemblance to what was originally being talked about.
OH THANK GOD!!
See what this bill would allow is for a company like Microsoft to design a product with DRM that required certain processors to decode and Apple would have to follow suit in their product line in order to meet the French law.
Apple sure as heck would have to pull out given that option.
Sometimes a law looks good, but can be used to crush a compeitior.
Now if they insisted the DRM music be changed free of charge to a alternate DRM scheme then that’s a different story. It would achieve the same results.
Get tired of iPods? Want a Creative Zoo box? Run the ACC DRM through a specialized program and then it’s WMA DRM.
Of course all the music we buy via iTMS has records associated with it, kind of hard t keep track of who owns what.
The commies lost — whew! As a greedy capitalist owner of AAPL shares, I am relieved.
I for one hate the DRM. I know what it’s for but I still hate it.
Which consumer likes it? Personally I think the French move was very pro-consumer (what I know of it), but I understand why it was struck down too.
I just think it’s odd that Steve Jobs had to defend it and not the music industry. It’s only benefit for Apple is that it makes the music boys happy and they continue to sell songs through iTunes.
Maybe the music industry was present. Who can tell by the pathetic American news.
But I still hate DRM.
============
“Jobs for life!” hey at least they’re willing to get off their ass “FOR work” instead of watching TV and doing NOTHING.
This has been quite a day for Apple: first the record labels knuckled under, and now the French. You’re next Yoko! Winning the Apple v. Apple suit would complete the trifecta.
oh goody!
i wanted to be locked into itunes for music and movies for the rest of my life. it makes me happy to know that i’ll never have any choice, unless of course, i don’t want to use my movies and music purchased from the store anymore.
oh right, this is a pro-apple site… hm. down with the french! itunes is great! i swallowed the red pill!
I’m gonna oui oui in my pants.
now if they could get them to strike and change the name of the Royale with cheese to Big Mac, everything would be shizzle.
You don’t know the history of DRM legislation. I do.
Finally remembered Normandy Beach during mid forties?
I’ve been saying all along, the french will back down. They always have and always will. Some may try and label this as anti-french, or maybe even worse. It’s not. It’s just the truth.
Sad thing that’s happening to the french people.
MDN word is “last”, as in
will the last french politician who is not a communist please speak up?
(crickets chirping)
Hal/MacDude…
uh – you know you’re not allowed to spread fud here anymore sonny. If someone doesn’t want to use iTunes anymore, they can rip a CD of their tunes to remove the drm.
“…the proposed French law was trashed by Apple as ‘state-sponsored piracy.'”
and
“Most of the consumer-friendly provisions in the legislation have since been removed or rewritten…”
translation: Most of the anti-business and pro-theft provisions have been removed.
—
Apple doesn’t really care about piracy. Their stake in this is that it might hurt iPod sales in France and or that it will scare their partners that provide the conent. If Apple were really against DRM, you could not easily remove it by burning a playlist.
re: Anti-business and pro-theft
There are music download stores with no DRM on their tracks. These sites are neither “anti-business” or “pro-theft”.
The vast majority of people, with the appropriate education, now understand that putting their music on P2P networks is piracy, but still want less restricted DRM for personal use. Nothing fucking wrong with that. Please don’t respond that “that’s the law”, because I’m not arguing that it isn’t within the copyright laws to restrict usage as they have. I’m arguing that the consumer wants more flexbility. I’m advocating that consumers should have the same ground of fair use with digital files that they have with CDs, tapes, and vinyl.
Real pirates, the ones that do huge volumes of fake media or have hundreds of thousands of songs available on P2P are going to crack the DRM, no matter what it is.
New Apple Commercial!!!
Apple finally hits below the belt.
New commercial during PrisonBreak. Attacks Windows shoddy recods for viruses.
Prepare for the onslaught.
MW “numbers”: Windows viruse > 100,000 – Mac “0”
To “MacDude’s Mommy” — “Hal” isn’t MacDude. “Al Jazzoo” is MacDude. The dead giveaway is how his posts are lengthy lists of little bitty paragraphs.
I was cruising on MDN one day,
in the very merry month of May,
when I was taken by surprise,
by a pair of lushous thighs,
in the very merry month of May.
NEW MAC AD’S OUT!
TOTALLY FRIGGING LAME!!
See here, no tricks
http://homepage.mac.com/brianbobcat1/iMovieTheater15.html
New commercial during “24” also!
thanks, Al Jazzoo
I thought it was good…..funny
how do kids that are unemployed go on strike?
Is anyone besides me really sick of the Tom Cruise repetitive quotes? I mean, it wasn’t funny the first time. Now it’s really really really really tired.
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
The new Apple TV ad with the PC guy with a virus is hilarious. It’s about time Apple took a shot at Microsuck’s non-existant security.