RSSApple Has U.S. Gov't Support Over DRM
By Ed Oswald | Published March 24, 2006, 1:23 PM
The U.S. government lent its support to protests by Apple Computer over a French law that would require the company, along with the digital rights management platforms of others, to interoperate with each other. U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez made the comments as part of an interview on the CNBC cable television network Thursday. While saying he needed more time to look over the law, he felt Apple's intellectual property rights were being violated and the company is right for speaking against the proposal.
Apple has called the law the equivalent of "state-sponsored piracy," however its supporters say it would better protect the rights of artists whose work is sold online. The policy is part of a bigger law designed to combat piracy. "I would compliment [Apple] because we need for companies to also stand up for their intellectual property rights," Gutierrez said in the interview. The law passed the lower house of the French legislature Tuesday by a 2-to-1 margin.
the whole point of drm is to prevent media from working with other company's products/formats. they keep harping on this piracy thing as if its the real reason, just to keep the truth hidden, and for once france sees the truth and wants to correct the injustice so apple complains and says france is the bad guy. well guess what.... they arent, its apple and their monoplolistic veiws/deeds that are the bad guys here
Score: 0
|Kinda torn on this one. On the one hand, I hate DRM with a passion. It is the ultimate "our customers are all criminals" insult. On the other hand, France is a sovereign nation (unless Germany flexes it's muscles and then they collapse into a spineless heap of quivering terror and wait for the rest of the world to bail them out...but I'm not bitter). So France can make their own laws.
Apple France certainly has the right to stop selling music and hardware in the French market if they cannot or will not comply with French law. They can go to court and try to win that way, or they can just comply with the new law. Not sure which way is cheaper. Right now this article is about whether they can convince the US Goverment to meddle in Frances internal matters. In that case Apple really wins because US politicians can be purchased much cheaper than lawyers (just ask the RIAA) although the lawyers do have higher ethical standards (do I sound cynical?).
Apple stands to lose a lot of money either way if they can't get the US Govmt to bail them out. The cost to make their stuff interoperable is big, and the loss of sales if they don't comply is also big.
Do I think it is fair? No, not really but this would not be the first time that folks made laws that were not fair...Nor the last...
Score: 0
|roflmao...
So wait, lemme get this straight:
In the war on Piracy, France was the first to surrender??
*gasp*
I'm shocked. Really. (Shocked is when you can't stop laughing, right? ...or is that hysteria?)
Score: 0
|The French never surrender.... oh maybe is cause the like to make love not war...Anyway, anyone that has purchased music on iTunes should know by now that you can take that file and burn a cd, which then allows you to do anything you want with it. Make mp3's and other files. I have done it with those files. I need to keep mp3's cuase i also have some non-apple players. So i guess they aren't that technical...
Score: 0
|Bah!
MP3/AAC/WMV...all crap.
And being able to burn it to CD is just icing on the crap-cake.
WAV, FLAC, APE, et al, are the way it should be sold online. Anything else is a rip-off.
The fact that iTunes and their ilk are so popular for selling such crap should suprise me. But....people are suckers for marketing.
The french never surrender....Bwaahahaahaha!
Score: 0
|Nobody forces you to buy an iPod. Nobody forces you to use iTunes. Go buy your music from somewhere else.
I guess the french need another source of income from fines to pay for their welfare state.
Score: 0
|dont tell me you have fallen for apples crap.
i mean dont get me wrong i hate the french too. but they arent sponsering piracy, the drm is still going to be there and apple will still make money off of it, but they are not allowed to just restrict their music to work on only ipods/ prevent other formats from working on the ipod
Score: 0
|This is a classic clash between intellectual property law and anti-trust law (or competition law as its called in the EU). One has to understand the differences between the U.S. and E.U. anti-trust law regimes and philosophies. The U.S. will tolerate anti-competitive restraints on trade provided a company DOES NOT have a monopoly of market. The E.U. does not make that distinction and will punish someone who has a 3% market share the same way as if they have 98%.
If the law is passed in France, other countries in the E.U. will likely follow suit. However, even then, this will not force Apple to open up their store in the U.S. to non-Apple MP3 players.
Apple has a history of being proprietary and locking out competitors while at the same time disingenously criticizing Microsoft for doing the same. I think the French law, if passed is going to be a good move for artists because their music will reach a wider audience (e.g. competing mp3 players are cheaper).
Score: 0
|The issues here have nothing to do with the French or with Apple (which is not that philosphically attached to DRM). If Apple capitulate, the music-moguls will cut off the iTunes licensing in a heartbeat and there will be no more iTunes for anyone. It was only the FairPlay DRM that got Apple the licence in the first place. So it's daft expecting Apple to 'give in' - they'd have nothing to sell if they did. Take arms against the RIAA and their capitulating companies if you think music should be unlocked and that DRM is the work of the devil. The French have asked something impossible of Apple, and they must know it, though what their reasons are, I can't guess.
[EDIT:]
Thinking about it, I guess the French intention is actually to pressure Apple into providing alternative formats (presumably formats that support different DRM protection, such as .wmv or other popular Windows-based formats)to .acc.
No solution to the ghastliness of DRM there, but I think such a move is long overdue on Apple's part. As others here have said, Microsoft would have been crucified if they had locked a proprietary format with NO disclosure AND had such a HUGE percentage of the downloaded-music market.
Score: 0
|Very good point. Apple is also at the mercy of the RIAA.
Score: 0
|None of you are getting the point. Since the French have no viable technological base they have passed a law saying Apple must open their technology up so French manufacturers can use the concept without having to develope their own. If you had built a better mouse trap you'd be upset if you were told you had to provide the design with no recourse for any compensation for the sales of the idea.
Score: 0
|Apple has called the law the equivalent of "state-sponsored piracy,"
So does that make Apple's current system state-sponsored consumer gouging? Me thinks so.
Once every quarter century or so the French come up with a good idea. This is one of them.
Score: 0
|There is no intellectual property protection with a CD. Why is it such a stretch to think of selling music online without such measures?
Not that the French are right with what they ask, but it astonishes me that everyone has to have their own encryption.
Vive le MP3! :)
Score: 0
|copyright - 'the right to control copying' was originally created to give the 'artist' (since it was originally books) a chance to make money before others could copy it, they had sole copy-rights.
intellectual property - is a simular term (usually refering to an idea), is the term given to mean someone own it - it is their 'property'
take the example of a book - a standard paperback...
if you bought a book in a bookshop, got it home, opened it and couldnt read it 'cos some 'copyright system / rights management' says...
you can only read one page a day,
between the hours of 8pm and 9pm,
and only when you are sitting in a bath of jello(!)
...that would be un-reasonable wouldnt it - and way beyond what copyright was set up for.
Im not copying it, Im not re-distributing it, Im not taking money from the copyright owner, Im not causing the copyright owner to loose money...
I just insist that I can use it any way I want
Score: 0
|DRM might be 'supported' by the government - but it's not supported by the people.
If (and I do mean 'IF') I buy something - I insist that I can use it in anyway I want.
Copyright is about protecting the owners income. Giving them breathing space to sell a product and make some money before others are allowed to copy it.
The copyright owner should not (heck must not) dictate how I use the product.
If they insist that they control the use of the product - I simply wont buy it.
Score: 0
|exactly,
is like buying a new car and having the manufacturer tell you
what route to take everyday....
is YOUR car, and you can drive it ANYWHERE you might want
Score: 0
|That is why I bought several MP3 players. I am able to put the music on all the devices and put it on my computer 0 problems and headaches (no software needed either) have XP and WMP10.
Score: 0
|and what the heck does you buying the mp3 players have to do with this article ???
i would understand if you would've bought one and removed the DRM .... a bios hack or something ....
PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF !!!!!!!!
Score: 0
|"The copyright owner should not (heck must not) dictate how I use the product.
If they insist that they control the use of the product - I simply wont buy it."
I'm assuming you never use over-the-counter medicine, Shampoo, Soap, Antibacterial cleaners, or mouthwash? "Use only as directed"--hmm? "Federal Law prohibits use of this product for any reasons other than which is directed"...ever seen that?
Score: 0
|Because with an MP3 player, there is no DRM. You buy the CD, rip it on the computer, and transfer it to the MP3 players via WMP10. It's apple and buying songs through iTunes that locks it to their player, and their player alone.
Score: 0
|Or like buying car insurance and it not covering you in a crash derby. Oh wait, bad example.
No, it's more like buying a cable modem for your house and not being able to resell the bandwidth or run a server. Oh wait, another bad example.
Ok, it's like going to the movies and not being able to video tape it in the theaters and make copies for your friends.
How about it's like installing a home phone line and then using it for business purposes. Umm...
Ok, it's really more like putting locks on all the cars so I can't just go take whichever one in the parking lot I feel like. Yeah.
Score: 0
|oh yeah, i get it.... is just like paying a prostitue for the hour, and have her repair your car instead since it'd be cheaper like that, than taking it to the carshop ....
Sweeeeet !!!
Score: 0
|"Shampoo, Soap, Antibacterial cleaners, or mouthwash?"
These are not intellectual property and are not copyrighted. Copyright owners have too many rights. That's because they have rich lobbyists who buy politicians. Just business as usual...
Score: 0
|So if I choose to drink shampoo (not that I would) not only will I get sick, but I am breaking federal law?
It should be my choice if I want to drink shampoo :-)
Can you imagine prisons full of people that don't follow these 'direction'.
"hey man! what you in for?"
"well I got caught drinking shampoo"
:-)
Score: 0
|ahHAhahAHhahAHhah good one man
Score: 0
|If I want to take the shampoo and wash my car with it the bottle wont refuse to open.
Score: 0
|Thankyou for understanding.
Score: 0
|oh Wah !! wah !! wah !!
shut up apple and just give it up
Score: 0
|Who cares?
Thankfully the US is not the center of the universe.
Next...
Score: 0
|These posts are really annoying. "Who cares?" "Next..." Really I value the opinions of the people who work for Betanews over yours. They have some journalistic experience and training. So my response to your post is "Who cares?" "Next..."
Score: 0
|yeah. If you don't like the content BN gives you, don't freaking read it.
Score: 0
|hey there towel monkey, if you dont like BN
(the posts, or their writers)
why did you sign up in the first place
if you want mainstream news, go watch TV ...
Score: 0
|We're not? Why are you reading a US site talking about US products and US companies? What are you, French? Go clean up after your riots...
Score: 0
|BREAKING NEWS: drumcat makes all other American users of Beta News proud with his extremely intelligent response...
...oh, wait. He's a moron.
Next...
Score: 0
|That's incredible satire, "animal". Why don't you read what I was responding to, and realize that the response fit the comment.
If someone can make a wholly unfounded anti-US comment, I feel the need to point out the insensibility of the logic.
If that's over your head, maybe you should wipe up your spit, put your hockey helmet back on, and run the 100 yard dash.
Next...
Score: 0
|actually we are reading about a proposed french law. any input the us government or people have is irrelivent because thankfully, the french dont have to answer to moronic usa idiocy
Score: 0
|How does France even have DRM? Isn't encryption a part of it, and last time I heard France doesn't allow it's citizens to have such "dangerous" technology.
Windows 2000/XP/2003 deson't have EFS for that reason
Score: 0
|"Why are you reading a US site talking about US products and US companies?"
The article is about Apple France. Here's some contact details for the company concerned in the article you dumb prick.
Apple Computer France
12 Avenue d'Océanie
ZA de Courtabœuf 3
91956 LES ULIS Cedex
France
Score: 0
|"Really I value the opinions of the people who work for Betanews over yours."
Oh dear. I wou;dn't if I were you. This week they've shown their true colours.
Earlier this week they posted a story from a relatively unknown publications house, Smart House, where it was claimed 60% of Windows Vista code having to be rewritten.
When it came to light that the story was actually utter rubbish, they posted another article "Microsoft: No Vista Code Changes" and strangely at the same time, the original Betanews article about the rewrite has magically dropped off the page and isn't in the weeks archives.
Wonder why...One could be forgiven for thinking that by making the original article disappear and posting the "It was all a hoax" article, they're trying to convince people that they weren't guilty of crap sensationalist journalism.
Score: 0
|"Thankfully the US is not the center of the universe."
Is that anti-US to say they're not the center of the universe ?
Score: 0
|Someone makes an unfounded anti-US comment, so that makes it ok for you to make racist comments? Get over yourself.
I think you've excelled yourself once again. That comment of yours just made you seem even MORE (or should that be less?) intelligent than the last one you made did.
Score: 0
|"Earlier this week they posted a story from a relatively unknown publications house, Smart House, where it was claimed 60% of Windows Vista code having to be rewritten."
As did just about every other Tech-News publication known to man. You feel the same about the rest of them as well?
"One could be forgiven for thinking that by making the original article disappear and posting the "It was all a hoax" article, they're trying to convince people that they weren't guilty of crap sensationalist journalism."
Or...perhaps...and I'm stretching a bit here... They didn't want to leave an aricle up that contained misinformation? *gasp*
Score: 0
|It's not racist if it's french-bashing...
It's just funny. ;)
Get over yourself, indeed...
(Since when have the french been another race? I'm all for humor at their expense, but they're still human... Unless we've learned something about their origins I'm not yet aware of.)
Score: 0
|monkeys?
Score: 0
|