The copyright law has been designed to prevent customers of a
music shop being locked into one particular player device.
Currently songs from iTunes can only be played on iPod devices.
The law was passed by both the French houses of parliament on
Friday following amendments made by the upper house, the Senate. In
its original form the law required any vendor to share the
computing code behind their digital rights management (DRM)
technologies.
This would have allowed songs to be played on any machine, but
Apple argued that such a move would undermine the security of
protected files and prove a boon for piracy. Apple has called the
law in its original form "state sponsored piracy".
The Senate weakened the law, though, creating a loophole which
would allow DRM to restrict a tune to a certain music player if
that was the wish of the copyright holder. With labels' and
artists' permission, then, Apple can continue to restrict iTunes
purchases to iPod players.
The socialist and green parties in the French parliament have
mounted a constitutional challenge to the new law in a process that
could take some weeks. Should that fail the proposal will
immediately become law.
"This text affirms a new principle, interoperability, which
makes France a pioneer country in Europe," said France's culture
minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, in parliament.
Other European countries may follow France's lead. The Norwegian
consumer ombudsman has ruled that the DRM breaches competition
rules and that it must change the technology. Cases in Sweden and
Denmark are proceeding along similar lines.
