by Playfuls Staff |
24th June 2006
Leading French lawmakers decided on Thursday to "cool down" a draft copyright law that could oblige Apple Computer Inc to produce its iPod music player and iTunes online store in such way to be compatible with rivals' offerings.[more]
The proposed French legislation that would, among many other things, force Apple to either get out of that market or open up iTunes DRM to third-party licensing (or legal hacking) has been approved, but only with a mellowed-out version of the DRM amendment. A joint Senate and General Assembly committee passed the revised version of the law, but the road doesn't quite end here as both chambers of parliament still need to vote on the proposal. The difference is that no more amendments can be made, except by the government, or ministerial cabinet.
The draft law that Pocket-lint reported on earlier this year proposed that Apple, Sony, and Microsoft would have to share their proprietary copy-protection systems.
It was approved by the National Assembly in March, but in order to pass in the Senate, it had to be weakened considerably.
The bill must still win approval from both houses of the French parliament. The first vote on it is expected next week.
Alain Suguenot, the depute for the Cote d'Or, criticized the commission.
"When we arrived at the meeting, we discovered that there were 55 new amendments which rewrote a section of the bill," Suguenot told Silicon.com sister site ZDNet France. "The two legislators in charge of writing up the bill had worked in secret to (write this new section), and we would have had to take a stance on these new propositions in just a few minutes."
Following amendments passed in the Senate last month, the principle of so-called "interoperability" between different music stores and music playing devices will still apply. But the previous blanket requirement for internet media stores to lower the technical barriers around content sold on their sites will be subject to various limits, notably allowing them to argue that restrictions were set at the request of copyright holders.
At present, DRM means a song bought on iTunes can only be played directly on Apple technology like the iPod, although it can also be burned on to compact discs.
The new proposal, based on amendments proposed in the Senate last month, is expected to be voted on in parliament on June 30, before becoming law but will not be subject to a second reading that could introduce major changes.
But the previous blanket requirement for Internet media stores to lower the technical barriers around content sold on their sites will be subject to various limits, notably allowing them to argue that restrictions were set at the request of copyright holders.
It would also give media stores a greater margin of maneuver by granting the power to settle disputes and oversee copyright control to an outside regulatory authority, instead of facing a flat interoperability requirement.
