RSSFrench DRM Law Revised for iTunes
By Ed Oswald | Published June 21, 2006, 5:23 PM
A bill in the French legislature that could have possibly caused Apple to pull out of the country will be revised to include a loophole that would allow companies to sidestep a requirement making proprietary DRM essentially illegal, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
However, new deals would need to be negotiated with record labels and artists in order to qualify.
The original bill would have outlawed DRM formats such as Appe's FairPlay format, which is closed to third party developers, and legalized conversion from one format to another. That bill passed the National Assembly -- the lower house -- in March.
However, the French Senate watered down the bill in May, amending the legislation to say that music stores would be allowed to keep their exclusivity only after receiving the go-ahead from copyright holders and artists. It now appears that the Senate's amendment would make it through to the final law.
Approval of the revised bill is expected Thursday. The compromise would also add a regulatory authority to ensure compliance with the new law. Companies could be forced to open up their formats if the authority deems they are imposing additional restrictions not predetermined by the copyright holders.
While Apple may have dodged a bullet in France, pressure to open up Apple's FairPlay format is surfacing elsewhere. Consumer groups in Norway, Sweden and Denmark accused Apple of violating contracts with its product usage regulations, and asked governments to take action earlier this month.
... And thus rendering the law useless, by handing out privileges and preferential treatment to some, yet forcing others to abide.
That's French justice for you - and a good symbol of French society at large (collusion and privilege). Trying to tone that down to 'the French left wing helping the customer' vs. 'the evil right catering to Big Business', as reader Sirdarius just did, denotes some serious ignorance and bad misunderstanding of the nature of the French society and its legislature and politics.
Anybody who follows French current events (as I do, having had the bad luck to be born a French) even just a bit, won't be surprised at all. Collusion, corruption and special privileges for everybody's own happy few is the rule here. In the words of a great French economist and pamphleteer (Bastiat): "The State is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else"
The guy knew what he was talking about.
Yet again, apart from wasting tax payer's money (which includes mine) this law is nothing more than another stack of useless text added on top of the gigantic pile of incoherent French laws and regulation.
(and by the way, I don't give a puppie's a** of Apple, DRMs, the music industry and whatnot)
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|I didn't tone down.
I've just related what hobbyism caused at the Assemblée Nationale. Virgin, Apple 'n co came to a place where they were theorically not allowed to come, to promote the law proposed by the right (with the exception of a few of them, Boutin, Carayon...)
On the other side, the FFII and April association lobbyied the opposition so they do their job, and proposed a few anti-DRM amendments, like the "Global License" thing.
Finally, a few things were refused by the Assemblée, to reduce the damage that the whole project would have done (for instance, see the infamous Vivendi-Universal amendment: http://www.videolan.org/eucd.html)
But, afterwards, the senate, majoritarily right-wing sided decided to go back to the initial proposal, and voted the worst possible law.
I have no doubt that if the left wing was in the government and the right wing in the opposition, it would have been all the same ;)
I was just giving facts.
There's one thing for sure, the sheer ignorance of politicians about the matters they voted will make this law practically unable to be applied.
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|all those posts are so full of nationalism and ignorance that it makes me want to puke.
what about staying on topic ?
i personnally wonder what the world look like if every hi-fi, radio, autoradio maker had its own proprietary music support format...
What if Audio CD was just one of many many formats ?
so, then, to listen to music at home, in cars... etc, we'd have to buy each album twice or more.
So the reason why there are STANDARDS is obvious. Interoperability has existed till now, thanks to big companies playing fair.
Now, software companies think it's better not to have any kind of interoperability, to protect their own business, and not caring about the consumers at all... because they have too much power !
the french left-wing tried to create an exception in the DADVSI law to allow interoperability, to protect consumers, developers, students, disabled people, libraries... etc
but once again, the right wing played for the big companies, and decided money was a better choice than citizens.
It's not a problem of french, not french, whatever... it's a problem that's occuring EVERYWHERE in the world because some big corporations wish to impose their laws to defend their own interests. It's pure abuse of power...
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|I guess the French are not as open minded and freedom loving as they claim to be. They too are swayed at the political level by big money. I personally have given up buying anything from France. I now buy wines from a lot of other countries, but not France. They are just too self-centered in the world arena. Supporting the former Iraqi government was the turning point for me.
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|...
"it seems that every mention
of France creates racist
comments here, I think it
reveals much of what american
people really are"
...
Oh yeah, right, like the French don't oppose
the U.S. at every turn !
[ And it ain't "racism" because France is a
country and not a race. ]
France will eventually be Muslim. Bro. Rat shall
have to giggle at ~that~ !
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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|...
The U.S. ~should~ have invaded France
instead of Iraq.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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|So they surrendered to Apple? Big shock there, eh?
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|Fight DRM !
http://defectivebydesign.org/
(by the way, it seems that every mention of France creates racist comments here, I think it reveals much of what american people really are)
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|well uh, maybe if they didnt lose WWII in like a month.....
but seriously, they have uh, well um im sure they have something worthwhile...
oh oh yeah the eiffel tower is cool....
i guess.
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|I think it reveals much of what american people really are
Endowed with a sense of humor? yeah, we get that a lot. Thanks for noticing.
As Bro. Rat stated, it is not racisim, it is nationalism. As far as I know, the french are human. Of course, if they weren't it might explain the smell. ;)
Did you catch that last bit? It was a joke. Ever heard of 'em? Lighten up, man. It ain't racism if it's funny.
*grins*
Was that another joke? Or wasn't it.....
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|Can can dancers and french maids...
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|France surrenders!
Oops...thought I was on Fark
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|What is this 'Fark' of which you speak?
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|"Appe's FairPlay format, which is closed to third party developers" ..... not very fair then, is it?
Perhaps they should have called it FarePlay, which is closer to the truth.
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|The French are neat.
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|For a country without any...nevermind. Do I really need to comment here?
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|BALLS!!!!
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|It's not like the US has any more balls when it comes to DRM, though.
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|