Quote :

"PARIS -- French lawmakers gave final approval Friday to legislation that could force Apple Computer Inc. to make its iPod and iTunes Music Store compatible with rivals' music players and online services. Both the Senate and the National Assembly, France's lower house, voted in favor of the copyright bill, which some analysts said could cause Apple Computer Inc. and others to pull their music players and online download stores from France. The vote was the final legislative step before the bill becomes law -- barring the success of a last-ditch constitutional challenge filed last week by the opposition Socialists. Currently, songs bought on iTunes can be played only on iPods, and an iPod can't play downloads from other stores that rival the extensive iTunes music catalog from major artists and labels -- like Sony's Connect and Napster. Apple described the original version of the copyright bill as "state-sponsored piracy" earlier this year, but a company spokesman was not immediately available to comment on Friday's vote. In a statement issued after lawmakers hashed out the final compromise text last week, Apple said it hoped the market would be left to decide "which music players and online music stores are offered to consumers." The final compromise asserts that companies should share the required technical data with any rival that wants to offer compatible music players and online stores, but it toned down many of the tougher measures backed by lower-house lawmakers early on. It also maintained a loophole introduced by senators, which could allow Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple and others to dodge the data-sharing demands by striking new deals with record labels and artists."

http://www.wral.com/technology/9453575/detail.html

What do you think? Apple gets pwnt by the Frenchies and have to allow mp3s and other formats on the iPod?

[Edited on June 30, 2006 at 5:03 PM. Reason : ]

6/30/2006 5:02:46 PM

the big thing is opening Apple DRM for use on other devices.

6/30/2006 5:03:53 PM

^Oh yea, forgot to put that in too.

6/30/2006 5:04:18 PM

Quote :

"What do you think? Apple gets pwnt by the Frenchies and have to allow mp3s and other formats on the iPod?"

More likely, Apple pulls its services out from France, people bitch, and the government lets them do it their way again.

6/30/2006 5:31:13 PM

ok, this is a really dumb question, but I've refrained from getting an iPod for the longest time. I finally got one for my father, but havent loaded it up yet. Will it not play regular mp3's that I've had for years?

6/30/2006 5:47:00 PM

it will play regular mp3's just fine.

6/30/2006 5:48:24 PM

IOW, france thinks it has the right to dictate to manufacturers what protocols they will support and to freely provide their own protocols to others.

Not good at all.

6/30/2006 6:02:13 PM

if i was apple id pull out of france

it cant be a huge market for them anyway

6/30/2006 6:58:59 PM

Quote :

"it cant be a huge market for them anyway"

compared to the rest of their market, probably not...but i'd be interested to find out how much pull the french market has

6/30/2006 8:05:31 PM

i thought about looking but i was interested

but not really that interested because it is france

6/30/2006 8:06:56 PM

apple will almost certainly pull out of the french market rather than open up their drm

6/30/2006 8:51:32 PM

Quote :

"IOW, france thinks it has the right to dictate to manufacturers what protocols they will support and to freely provide their own protocols to others."

I know, let's not worry about monopolies. Let's just let microsoft run willy nilly all over everything, too!

6/30/2006 10:16:19 PM

well im pretty sure that neither apple with itunes and music distrubtion or microsoft with operating systems are the only players in their respective markets

so yeah france is just being a giant douche bag as usual

[Edited on June 30, 2006 at 10:19 PM. Reason : .]

6/30/2006 10:18:14 PM

i really doubt apple will give in... the french will have to go w/o for a while

6/30/2006 10:26:10 PM

actually, as much as I deplore France, technologically, I think this is the right move. I have a real problem with technology which needlessly seeks to limit compatibility. There's no reason that an iPod shouldn't play music from other services, other than to stifle competition.

sure, Apple should be able to build its shit however they want to, and it's a fine line you walk in this case.

6/30/2006 10:40:31 PM

Interoperability would be a good thing for everyone, but I don't blame Apple for being stingy (for the time being). I think they see it that they got screwed over with the Mac OS, and this is their revenge. At some point though, I think they WILL have to open up the FairPlay DRM.

But, I also think Apple has enough industry push to pull off getting by through the loophole:

Quote :

"Fortunately for Jobs, the decision about going or staying in France can wait for a while as the Cupertino, Calif.-based company measures the effectiveness of a legal loophole. That measure introduced by senators in May, would allow Apple and others to dodge the data-sharing demands of the new law by striking deals with record labels and artists. Apple would be able to maintain its link between iTunes and the iPod, but would have to get authorization from artists and other copyright holders of the music it sells online first. "

6/30/2006 11:32:41 PM

damn, this is the specific reason I bought the Vision:M instead of the iPod a few months ago.

6/30/2006 11:59:37 PM

Why would this bill in France affect your decision to get an iPod or a Vision? It has very little bearing if you live in France, and practically no bearing outside of France.

7/1/2006 12:22:55 AM

Quote :

"I know, let's not worry about monopolies. Let's just let microsoft run willy nilly all over everything, too!"

You do realize there is nothing inherrently illegal about a monopoly right? You would also have a pretty tough case showing this to be any more of a monopoly than ford having a monopoly on ford cars.

Quote :

" There's no reason that an iPod shouldn't play music from other services, other than to stifle competition. "

Perhaps Apple doesn't feel it's worth the licensing and support costs that they would incur in order to make the iPod work with other services especialy since they have their own service to sell. Why is it Apple's job to make sure the iPod works with the protocols you want? Further more, it's hardly stifling competition for them not to support other protocols. If nothing else it eliminates a portion of the market from them.

7/1/2006 12:26:12 AM

It's nothing but willful ignorance to believe that Apple doesn't open up FairPlay for any reason other than to stifle competition. In any freemarket system, it's a corporations prerogative (and almost a mandate from the shareholders) to stifle the competition as much as possible.

In most cases though, interoperability is better for the consumer. Until opening up FairPlay will help Apple and the iPod it won't happen. Right now, the iPod is far too popular and good of a player for opening it up to help Apple. In a few years, when other companies get their act together, and iPod sales wane significantly, then Apple will be forced to do it.

7/1/2006 12:40:47 AM

Quote :

"Why would this bill in France affect your decision to get an iPod or a Vision? It has very little bearing if you live in France, and practically no bearing outside of France."

This specific bill had nothing to do with what I bought, but the issue did. I bought the Vision:M because I like using it Rhapsody. If in the future, in America, iPod's are able to use Rhapsody, Napster, etc. then that would defeat the whole purpose of why I bought mine in the first place.

7/1/2006 3:09:15 PM

The ipod is the easiest to use mp3 player on the market and the best looking. I'd buy one if Rhapsody worked on it.

7/1/2006 3:44:39 PM

Quote :

"It's nothing but willful ignorance to believe that Apple doesn't open up FairPlay for any reason other than to stifle competition. In any freemarket system, it's a corporations prerogative (and almost a mandate from the shareholders) to stifle the competition as much as possible. "

Yes, closing the fiarplay is clearly a competative advantage and not under dispute. But it's not a reason (IMO) to have the government step in a tell a company what it can or can not do. Further, it was not what I was talking about it my previous post. Please read what I quoted, as I responded to that specificaly.

7/1/2006 3:46:04 PM