There was a time when Steve Jobs said something that sounds similar to the message coming out of France today, but his meaning was far different. In March 2002, Mr. Jobs said "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own." Songbirdnest points out that Martin Rogard, an adviser at the French Culture Ministry, recently said "The consumer must be able to listen to the music they have bought on no matter what platform."

The two quotes sound strikingly similar, but there was one vital piece missing in 2002: The iTunes Music Store (iTMS). Mr. Jobs quote was in response to questions about copying CDs to your Mac and an iPod. The iTMS was still several months away, and recording labels were criticizing Apple for its "Rip, Mix, Burn" marketing campaign.

In contrast, France is looking to open competing digital rights management technologies, which would allow music purchased from the iTMS to play on any digital music device. Apple is calling that "state sanctioned piracy."

Apple agreed to include digital rights management (DRM) technology in songs purchased from the iTMS so that the recording labels would feel comfortable selling their music through Apple's service. Apple's FairPlay DRM scheme lets you burn multiple copies of a song track, play the song on several computers, and copy songs to an iPod. No other portable digital music players use FairPlay technology, limiting the copy protected songs to Apple's music player.