DealsOnTheWeb Daily Deal: OneCall's Weekend Sale - 20 Great Items at Great Prices All Weekend Long
French Parliament Approves DRM Bill
by , 11:55 AM EST, March 21st, 2006
France has tentatively approved its bill intended to offer protection for music and video copyright holders and to open proprietary Digital Rights Management (DRM) formats like Apple's FairPlay. The bill now moves on to the French Senate for approval, which is likely to take several weeks.
One aspect of the bill is aimed at prohibiting proprietary copy protection schemes that limit files to playing on only one brand of device. Such a clause could potentially force Apple, Sony, Microsoft, and any other company that uses its own proprietary formats to open them to competitors. The proposed law does not explicitly require companies to immediately open their formats, but does include provisions so that anyone can petition the courts to impose compliance.
The bill also includes several controls over DRM related software, and prohibits owning or using any application that can bypass copy protection. Unfortunately, the wording is vague enough that Apple's iTunes application could be considered an illegal piece of software. The FairPlay copy protection can be bypassed by burning songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store to a CD, and then re-importing them into iTunes or any other music jukebox application.
Penalties in the bill include:
- €38 for the unauthorized downloading of a copyright-protected work.
- €150 for sharing a copyrighted work with someone else.
- €750 for possessing or using an application that bypasses copyright protection.
- €3,750 for developing software or providing information about bypassing copyright protection.
- €30,000 and 6 months in prison for distributing applications or technology that bypasses copyright protection.
- €300,000 and up to 3 years in prison for distributing any peer to peer software which knowingly promotes piracy.
It's unclear how Apple and other companies will respond to the legislation if it passes the French Senate. Companies may go ahead and offer the specification for their DRM technology to competitors, although that seems unlikely. Developing a "French Version" and a "Rest of the World Version" of music download stores, MP3 players, and other related technologies is also an option, but seems amazingly cumbersome for companies to manage.
Pulling out of the French market is also an option, but at a potentially high price: French consumers are some of the most active of European online music purchasers.
According to the BBC, France is concerned about monopoly control over the music market. Alexander Ross, music partner at the media and technology practice, Wiggin, commented "It is an attempt to level the playing field in terms of the consumer experience."
Representatives from Apple were not available for comment.
Observer Comments
Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:35 pm Subject: Road to Paris paved with bad intentions
Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:46 pm Subject: Burning a CD and re-importing doesn't "bypass" Fai
QuoteGuest wrote:
That's pretty much France in a nutshell in doing business. Just look at video formats - 98% of the world is PAL or NTSC - what's France? SECAM. They don't really care if it makes it tougher for you to do business - they just like to go on their path - if you want to follow, do so - if not, buh-bye.
Ummm, Guest, you seem to be living in the past here. France has stopped using Secam for around a decade, and has now entirely switched to PAL (even the French found Secam stupid, and it really was).
Recent Headlines - Updated Friday, May 16th, 2008
- Fri., 8:00 PM
- iPodObserver - Dr, Danger, Brickfilms, Narnia and More
- 5:10 PM
- StrangeCharm - Explosions and Debris (Week of May 12)
- 4:15 PM
- TMO's DealsOnTheWeb.com - 8GB iPod Touch: $229 Delivered
- 3:35 PM
- Safari Suffers from "Carpet Bomb" Issue
- 2:55 PM
- iPodObserver - Barack Obama's Smartphone of Choice
- 2:35 PM
- Parallels Releases Update for Vista SP1 and XP SP3
- 1:00 PM
- iPodObserver - AT&T: Back to Three iPhone Limit Per Customer
- 12:55 PM
- Mac Gaming News - Macgamestore Intros Agatha Christie: Peril at End House
- 10:35 AM
- Hot Forum Topic - The iPhone's Growing Global Reach
- 10:05 AM
- Unparsed - I found Those Missing iPhones!
- 9:45 AM
- Fone2Phone 2.01 Improves Performance, Cell Phone Support
- 9:20 AM
- Apple Scores 2 Black Pencils at D&AD Awards
- 8:40 AM
- Yahoo to Icahn: Get a Clue
- 8:05 AM
- iPodObserver - Orange Gets Europe, Middle East, Africa iPhone Deal
- 7:30 AM
- TMO Quick Tip - Quick Look: Web Archives
The Mac Observer Reader Specials
- Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
- Other World Computing: Power up your PowerMac G4! Make you trusty PowerMac G4 like new again with up to 2.0GHz Processor Power. G4/1.2GHz for $199, Dual 1.8GHz $498, & More Plug & Play for like new A-OK for OS 9 & OS X, etc.
NEW MacPro Memory 800Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB Kit $104 / 4GB Kit $184 / 8GB Kit $362 Click to Maximize your Macs...
Mac observers can now play Party Poker for Mac as well as Mac casino games by going to MacPokerOnline.com.For the latest Apple products use Ciao a comparison website to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate cell phones.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

