France To Force iTunes to Open to Other Players? 325
JordanL writes "It appears that France is pushing through a law that some feel may force Apple to open iTunes to other players. From the article: 'Under a draft law expected to be voted in parliament on Thursday, consumers would be able to legally use software that converts digital content into any format. It would no longer be illegal to crack digital rights management -- the codes that protect music, films and other content -- if it is to enable to the conversion from one format to another.'"
Seen it coming (Score:5, Interesting)
French = Freedom. I think that's already been established by the US Congress [cnn.com].
Microsoft as well? (Score:5, Interesting)
Would pulling out iTMS France be enough? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wish I had access to the draft of the bill in question (along with a good English translation) -- the article suggests several things which may or may not be true.
One of these suggestions is that Apple may have to stop running iTMS France in order to avoid compliance. However, it also states that other online stores would have to provide songs in a form that allows them to be played on the iPod.
Now I'm assuming that the primary music labels from outside of France would prefer to simply no longer license their works for digital download in France than allow providers to distribute music in an unencumbered format (such as MP3). Which would mean that the only way French law could permit other online music stores to provide music in iPod format would be for them to be allowed to use Fairplay.
This would mean that either Apple would be forced to license Fairplay to any online music store in France, or these companies will be permitted to reverse-engineer it. They would likewise need to be able to access a users Fairplay key.
In which case, the only way Apple may be able to avoid this whole mess would be to pull not only iTMS out of France, but the iPod as well. And I don't see Apple doing this.
The only way I see around this would be for all of the online music stores in France -- Apple's iTMS included -- to come up with a common, France-specific music DRM format. And while the added flexability would be of benefit to French digital music consumers, I'm not sure if having nation-specific DRM formats is going to be all that great of an idea.
Yaz.
iTunes or Napster? (Score:3, Interesting)
Why keep up your subscription if you can download all the music you want and then keep it .
Re:Some explanations ... (Score:4, Interesting)
The law is just adding more anti-trust principles on digital music, so that corporate trust can not force people to by their own product and can not force the the people to by only at their shop.
Thanks for the background info. The intent here sounds good, but I'm still confused as to what Fnac would be forced to do. Offer non-DRM AAC or MP3 versions of songs customers purchase from Fnac, which the copyright holders won't let them do? Offer FairPlay-encrypted DRM versions, which Apple won't let them do? Link to the iTMS?
Re:Would pulling out iTMS France be enough? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Journalism at its finest (Score:3, Interesting)
Alright, yes, if this law passes, it will become easier to remove DRM encryption, because the tools to do so will become legal and therefore the tools will become more readily available. So, sure, it would become easier to illegally redistribute copyrighted materials. I can't see why Apple would close the French iTMS for this reason, though. If France actually made it legal to redistribute the songs, then Apple might have a problem.
Short quotes from wire stories should not be taken out of context to criticize the story's author.
I don't believe I took anything out of context. I did quote the previous paragraph as well.
Re:Would pulling out iTMS France be enough? (Score:4, Interesting)
I think you need to read what I posted again, because I did indeed deal with this.
What incentive would, say, Sony BMG have to license music to any French digital music retailer, if that retailer wnated to sell their music in a non-DRM'ed format? Sony BMG (just as an example) could simply decide to get out of online digital music sales in France altogether, rather than have their music sold in MP3 or unprotected AAC format. And with no music to sell, the online stores will simply dry up and go away in France.
The only way the French government can get this to work is to allow the other vendors to reverse engineer Fairplay, and/or require Apple to license Fairplay to these other companies. The aim of this law doesn't appear to be to force online music stores out of business, and in order to work with Fairplay other online stores will need access to a users iTMS key. Because as I see it, every music company would rather stop selling all online digital music than permit legal, unprotected music downloads in France.
This is why, as I said, having access to the proposed text of this law would help clarify such issues.
Yaz.
Re:Under what justification? (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually France is a republic (the "Fifth Republic", to be exact), though many would argue the goverment is actually socialist (less so now than fifteen years ago, but much more so than the U.S.)
Yes, I'm nitpicking. But France and the U.S. are not democracies and the people do make the laws. (if it were to go to a public vote, sharing copyrighted mp3's as well as many other vices would most likely be legalized in any democracy.)
BTW, France is certainly not a "free" country, in that citizens don't have guaranteed rights that Americans supposedly have (like rights to a fair trial and freedom of speech.) Of course that's purely on paper, in actual practice the French have much more latitude to "go against the grain" and act out against the government (both foreign and domestic) as well as multinational corporations than their American counterparts... Which speaks more to national character than government policy. The French see themselves as rebels, and that's a good thing.
Re:Journalism at its finest (Score:2, Interesting)
It isn't the people stealing from the artists, they buy the tickets and the cds. It is the labels. Want to pay the artists? Freely promote their music independent of the studios - they'd make more money selling cds 3 bucks a piece and more people would buy them. Imagine if you could buy a download for a nickel... or give away your music altogether in download form while making your money from live appearences. The intellectual property protection paridigm is a loser, it is inevitable your content WILL be redistibuted - it is unstoppable. If you can see it or hear it, it can be reproduced and distributed. Make music free and find a better way to pimp it out.
Jes sayin'
Re:Journalism at its finest (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally, given its past pattern of behavior, I suspect that the French government is doing this not "for the consumer", but to drive Apple and iTMS and its foreign cultural influences out of France, opening the doorway for its own music and hardware industries.
Re:Some explanations ... (Score:5, Interesting)
There seems to be some confusion in the article between iTunes and the iPod. The law would not affect just Apple, but all online music retailers and digital music players. But since Apple is the leader in both, it gets singled out.
My guess is that Apple may be forced by the recording industry to close iTMS France (after all, Steve Jobs has gone on record as saying that DRM isn't the answer), but eventually returning after a backlash from French artists and music purchasers.
Re:Misleading article (Score:2, Interesting)
But it also aim to permit interoperability (and you see here the problem : how can we make DRMised contents to be interoperable, as DRMs are made to stop interoperability ? )
At first vote in december, an amendment was passed to permit P2P use but the government had forced the parliement to discuss it again, and now this part of the law is totaly 6 feets under... But now, use of P2P to download copyrighted music/films/whatever could cost you 38 euros.
Last but not least, copy exceptions for research and teaching wouldn't be totally permitted...
Added to this the fact that the minister Donnedieu de Vabre (nicknamed "launderer minister", "the sinister of inculture" or "Ptipimousse") want this law to pass without been discussed correctly and tried to make a propaganda site (lestelechargements.com, using Dotclear but at a cost of... 180000 euros, and no real possibility to comment or discuss !), and you could understand why some of us are very angry here...
(sorry for the possible fault, but I'm french and mad about all of this, so it doesn't help ^^)
Re:Journalism at its finest (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't be mistaken, the music industry has a big influence in France as well, and they'll not give up on that one. Proof is the damn thing was supposed to be voted in December but the parliament is opposing much more resistance than the majors suspected.
--
XviD review [palmdrive.net]
Re:Under what justification? (Score:2, Interesting)
How is this any different than shipping an Operating System and then changing the licensing? How is it any different than shipping a program, then shipping an update that adds/removes functionality?
While it's good to question DRM as a whole, media needs to be held to the same standard as other digital goods (software).
Re:Seen it coming (Score:4, Interesting)
What do we know today that we didn't know in November 2004?
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
french government (Score:1, Interesting)
After all, the government is currently debating a law that would remove employment rights from people under 26, they've got to do something to stop every single 16-25 year old turning out against them on polling day..
How is this any different (Score:2, Interesting)
Im not saying im against it, im all for it. But if they do this, shouldnt they
also say MS must allow office for example to run on any OS?
Re:Microsoft as well? (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh boy I hope so. With tight DRM there is a lot of good music I would have never been introduced to. For example I was impressed with the christmas light show that made the rounds on the net last year. If the copyright owner was super anal about the distribution of the song, then I neve would have found about the Trans Siberian Orchestra. As it turns out, the guy with the light show was invited to one of the concerts while they were on tour and praised for his excellent work.
Tell me again why the media companies want to keep me from finding good music?
Most of the stuff on the radio isn't worth going out and buying. This is especialy true when it comes with restrictions and viruses built in.
To make sure I get a real copy, I always look for the Compact Disk logo showing the title meets Philips specification for an audio recording. There is so very little on the shelf at the music store with the compatibility logo. It's no longer worth the effor to try to find good music with the logo anymore. I quit trying.
Re:Some explanations ... (Score:1, Interesting)
Then by your arguement all xbox games should be able to play playstations and gamecubes and vice versa, not to mention Windows and Macs should be compatiable too. All that apple is doing is only alowing itunes to be played on ipods, pcs and macs that have quicktime, real player, or itunes. It's not at all unreasonable to think that apple will not grant competers the right to compete with their portiable music players because that's what they make their money on.
Re:Would pulling out iTMS France be enough? (Score:1, Interesting)
Actually, the whole purpose of this is to transpose a european directive about what we call "Droits d'auteur et droits voisins" (copyright and associated rights, to make it very short) and the repercussion of IT on those. The original draft was actually about legally prohibiting anybody to mess with code handling DRM (that is, do exactly the same as the US). What is interesting, as the GP noted, is that the whole global licence ("legal P2P") debate, although it is now close (there will be *no* global licence in France) will probably influence the parliament in favour of less restricting DRM-enforcement. I do share the hopes on the GP on this topic -- we'll see in a few weeks
So no, software to remove DRM is not (as far as I know) currently illegal in France. It could be very soon, though