RSSiTunes DRM Likely Safe in France
By Ed Oswald | Published May 10, 2006, 3:20 PM
The ability of Apple to keep iTunes DRM closed in France, as well as the service's future in the country, may be safe thanks to an amendment to a copyright bill to be voted on by the Senate this week. Under the amendment, music stores would be allowed to keep their exclusivity only after receiving the go-ahead from copyright holders and artists.
Lawmakers are attempting to tone down a bill that would essentially make closed digital rights management technologies illegal in the country. The changes have received the blessing of the government and several consumer groups, and the bill passed the lower house of the French legislature in late March.
Apple said the law was equivalent to "state-sponsored piracy," and analysts have speculated that the company would pull out of the country as a result.
Under the revision, any disputes over interoperability would now be decided by a regulatory authority if they pose a roadblock that is "additional to, or independent of, those explicitly decided by the copyright holders."
Thus, Apple and others could still essentially refuse to open up their DRM, but only if the owners of the content have approved. But supporters of the original bill say they want any loopholes closed that could prevent interoperability from becoming a reality, and there is no assurance that the amendment would pass.
In any case, a vote in the Senate is expected within a few days, which would be followed by meetings with the lower house to iron out inconsistencies and come up with a compromise version of the bill.
I feel safer already...
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|Shame really. I was looking forward to forcing the music companies/stores into allowing people (Me) to actually listen to music where I want rather than where they want.
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|Closed DRM or Open DRM, it doesn't matter. There will still that savvy group of "Computer Programming Wizards" who will use their ingenuity to play DRM content anywhere they please. Just give it time.
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|I'll get this out of the way here:
Headline should read:
"France Surrenders to DRM. Entire world in state of shock... or not."
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|its nice to know the first thing good the french almost did ever isnt going to happen..
but hey the government everywhere is really for the corps and not the people, france just shows even more of their true colors..
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|"france just shows even more of their true colors.."
Yellow? *grin*
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|Give France a break. Theyre good at surrendering, its what they do. Ask the Germans.
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|"Ask the Germans."
Sorry, I don't Sprechen zie Deutsch. ;P
I hope to God no-one's actually taking me seriously.
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|hey come on, the french have other talents too.
like...uh....
well there is......
maybe they are good at....
well im drawing blanks but maybe they are good at something else, i mean they have to have some talent, right?
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|I hear they're pretty good at speaking French.
I guess someone...somewhere might consider that a talent. ;)
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|Food! I mean real food, unlike the mixture of suger, grease and salt americans like to call food. Also, French have much more historic knowledge, as they tend to remember BOTH world wars instead of just one. Guess who won the first?
And at least they tried something against this stupid drm trash.
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|My god...you're not actually taking any of this seriously, are you?
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|No, I'm trying to start a flame war. So please stop being ironic and join the party.
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|;)
In that case...
*puts on flame-retardent suit*
What have the french done in the past hundred or so years that's been of *any* value, eh? Food? You're kidding right? We all know the only nations that produce anything decent to eat are Germany and Italy.
And don't get me started on their military... You have "googled" for "french military victories", haven't you???
*grin*
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|Your discussion is very funny, for me..
I'm french! ;)
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