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France: Apple Should Have Expected DRM Law

Friday, April 14th, 2006 at 12:00 PM - by Staff

The French Trade Minister, Christine Lagarde, commented on Apple and the proposed French digital rights management (DRM) laws while on a trade visit to the United States. According to PhysOrg, she said "Any time a company restricts competition in a market, it gets the attention of regulating agencies. We have to play by the rules of the game."

She also said that it should come as no surprise to Apple that France would challenge the Fairplay DRM iTunes and iPod system.

Many, however, feel that Apple is not restricting the market because it has not taken actions to force its competitors out of the French music download business.

The proposed French law will require music download services to share their DRM copy protection technology with any company that asks. Such a law would force companies like Apple, Sony, and Microsoft to turn over their proprietary code, and open their music services to competitors.

France contends that music downloads should not be restricted to specific MP3 players.

Should France enact the law, analysts predict that Apple would shut down the French iTunes Music Store before opening its DRM technology to competitors.

12 comments from the community.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:53 pm

Let them pass the law and see how many companies pull out. I doubt if MS will be any more eager than Apple in passing information on their DRM to "any company that asks". There is no faster way to eliminate DRM. Back to the illegal downloads for the frogs.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Apr 14, 2006 12:54 pm

And Apple should have expected a grovelling weenie country to want to pirate music!!

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Bosco said:

member since 03 Jun 2002 with 1002 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:03 pm

Maybe France should have anticipated Germany -- TWICE.

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:12 pm

Bosco wrote:
Maybe France should have anticipated Germany -- TWICE.

YOU rock!

lmao

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A guest said: (hide)

Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:18 pm

Should Sony Playstation games work on the XBox? Should XBox games work on the Nintendo Game Cube? Should Microsoft Money run on Linux. Come on... this is an argument without merit. This is French protectionism at its best. iTunes came to France and beat out their best French owned offerings and they just don't like it. Now they are going to legislate to protect their own national interests and in the process they will isolate themselves from the rest of the world.

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jimothy said:

member since 04 Jun 2004 with 612 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:38 pm

You can take my iTunes, but you can never take my freedom fries!!!

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geoduck said:

member since 30 Dec 2003 with 1922 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Apr 14, 2006 1:51 pm

I can't believe that the EU wouldn't step in and kill this stupid law before it could take effect.

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doogie said:

member since 21 Sep 2004 with 17 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Fri Apr 14, 2006 4:04 pm

I'm not sure, but it would seem to be in the area of WTO regulation as well.

I'm curious to see if Apple will call them on this one and pull out. France may seem like a big market, but I imagine that it would be like pulling out of New Jersey. What would the effect be on the bottom line would a loss in French iPod sales be enough to warrant opening their DRM?

Do the French think that they have that much power over the market? I would think French consumers would still have significant access to iPods, if not iTunes, and iTunes is not where the money is.

What about DRM? If anybody can get access to the DRM, whose to stop Jean's Crackmiesteres, Inc. from demanding the DRM scheme, just to help them break it?

I hope they pass the law so that we get some answers.

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Rainy Day said:

member since 07 Jun 2005 with 607 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Sat Apr 15, 2006 4:02 pm

Bosco wrote:
Maybe France should have anticipated Germany -- TWICE.

Ouch! Truth hurts.

At any rate, i didn’t realize the French were still around. After last week, i thought the world ended with Boot Camp, or at least France did!

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A guest said: (hide)

Sun Apr 16, 2006 8:46 am

Hm, great on the pseudo-racist comments. Maybe you should read a bit about why DRM is bad for you as a customer before you lap up some more iTunes. And no - DRM isn't the only way to buy music online, so having the closed minded attitude "It's DRM *OR* illegal downloads" is really going to get us in a mess. It's about time some government stepped into stem the attack of digital restrictions on individuals.

The argument about PlayStation games and Xboxs is quite retarded, these devices software simply are not compatible because these devices are computers and the games are computer software. In the interests of performance (clearly important in games) software is made for a particular platform. Apples restricted music in this case is *designed* to keep customers in a little "I have an iPod and I have iTunes and that is my whole world" walled garden. Digital Restrictions Management in general is made to restrict your choices, and that is why many find it so distasteful - especially when you factor in that it only restricts paying customers and not people who rip off music and video.

In this case though, government is demonstrating that (completely separate to DRM being offensive to music customers) the restrictions are actually being used as an anti-competitive measure, because other music download services (the ones want to use DRM) aren't able to sell to iPod owners. Read about capitalism, you will see why government is often very necessary to prevent anti-competive practices.

And if you're sitting there with your iPod on your crotch stroking it, then wake up and smell the coffee - with iTunes and the iTMS you are helping to create a digital world where you are simply consumers and have no say in your industry at all. Do you want a music collection? Or merely a list of things that your Apple system, or your Microsoft system or Napster or whatever it is this year, allow you to do / see / hear. You might even be surprised how many people would rather actually have actual audio or video, that isn't encrypted/watermarked/locked down/DRMed/locked/thumbprinted, that they actually have on *their* computer, not in some sort of industry lock up on their computer.

"What about DRM? If anybody can get access to the DRM, whose to stop Jean's Crackmiesteres, Inc. from demanding the DRM scheme, just to help them break it?"

You have serious understanding issues here. I will try and write a short analogy (ugh) so that you don't get bored of me

Basically, in order for other companies to interoperate with Apples DRM they have to know how to LOCK things up, not UNLOCK them. So perhaps you can understand it that government here is trying to make it so that other music/video companies can see the lock design. Not give them access to the keys. And no, seeing the lock does not make something easier to crack. If it did, it's a $#!% lock. It's the keys you need my friend.

They wouldn't need to stop selling iPods, it would only mean that they wouldn't be able to sell restricted 'music' any more. That levels the playing field

"Now they are going to legislate to protect their own national interests and in the process they will isolate themselves from the rest of the world."

Hm, or, they're the first country to take a stand, at something that's been brewing in several nations.

And: it's not a war issue. FFS. Isolating themselves from the rest of the world? How relevant do you think iTunes is in world politics? Please say "not very".

"And Apple should have expected a grovelling weenie country to want to pirate music!!"

Are you completely stupid? It's nothing to do with pirating music, it's about anti-competive practices. Let me say it again - non restricted music ***isn't illegal*** - several companies sell music that isn't encrypted/watermarked/restricted etc. They might not be your favourite company however.

Remember, it's not illegal to not use DRM. It is sometimes illegal to use DRM. DRM is bad for customers. DRM is bad for markets. Guess what we need to do about DRM? Guess who's helping. They might not be the most popular country in your eyes, but they're fighting the good fight.

O&O

thehumanerror

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A guest said: (hide)

Sun Apr 16, 2006 9:04 am

I might be wrong but doesn't the Ipod support mp3 which doesn't employ Apple's DRM? I pretty sure there are iPod owners out there that are using other services apart from iTunes.

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A guest said: (hide)

Sun Apr 16, 2006 12:24 pm

Guest wrote:
I might be wrong but doesn't the Ipod support mp3 which doesn't employ Apple's DRM? I pretty sure there are iPod owners out there that are using other services apart from iTunes.

I think I mentioned this, but several providers would like to be able to license Apple's restrictions system so they can use iPod owners in the same way that Apple do. So you would then have the choice of buying music on CD, MP3 and other non restricted formats and putting them on your iPod (how hard is this?) and any of your other equipment as pleases you, you would also be able to use iTunes (ugh) and other restrictive music providers as well. I think Virgin in the UK, which sell lots of iPods for Apple by the way, would also like to be able to sell restricted music to iPod owners.

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