p2pnet - rss feed: France votes on iPod Act
p2p news / p2pnet: French lawmakers have today voted 296 - 193 in favour of a new copyright law, having already approved changes that will allow anyone in France to demand disclosures that will effectively end DRM, there, opening the way for people to play their music on any kind of portable device these like.
As things stand in France and elsewhere, iPods rule, but Apple’s CRAP standards stop punters, who are prepared to fork out $1 and more for the lossy corporate music downloads, from playing their bought-and-paid-for iTunes on anything but Apple products.
But Apple won’t have to actually drop its DRM, Ratiatum’s Guillaume Champeau explained to p2pnet.
Rather, “It will be forced by courts to disclose every piece of information that will fully enable third party software to play tracks bought on iTunes,” he says. And this might force Apple to close its French music store if it wants to keep FairPlay locked up.
It won’t, though, be legal to make downloads playable without respecting the rights restrictions, says Champeau: “For instance, free software could be created to play iTunes files, but you still won’t be able to burn the results more than five times.”
Other provisions in the proposed new law, “outlaw the creation of non-filtered p2p software with sort of a Grokster-like reasoning that will kill commercial innovation in France and will put free software in danger.
“They vote in fines for illicit downloading and uploading without explaining how they’ll link an IP address to an infringing individual.
“They vote against securing private copying, and created an ‘independent’ authority to determine private copying rules, and to hear complaints. It’s already established that making a copy of a DVD you buy in a shop will not be legal. Private copying will be legal only if the number can be controlled by DRM technologies.”
“We’ll see what the Senate has to say in May,” adds Champeau. “They don’t have a reputation of being very progressive, but sometimes they surprise us.”
Also See:
CRAP standards - Apple and its C.R.A.P., March 4, 2006
March 21st, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Whoever wrote this article needs to undestand the value of Apple’s DRM.
Without it, the legitimate downloading market will seem a whole lot more attractive to a whole lot of new people. People who never thought about paying for a tune with their Creative Zen will head over to Apple iTunes.
Be thankful Apple has such a restrictive policy. It forces others like Napster to not only complet against free P2P, but Apple as well.
I hope this fails miserably and Apple rules the legitimate market forever.
March 21st, 2006 at 2:47 pm
when you take your apple vows do you swear on the bible?
March 21st, 2006 at 2:54 pm
I dont think I understand your question…
March 21st, 2006 at 3:03 pm
“Private copying will be legal only if the number can be controlled by DRM technologies.”
So, public domain recordings cannot be copied unless it is DRM controlled and if DRM says zero copies are allowed, then public domain music cannot be copied?
Tricky, no?
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com
March 21st, 2006 at 3:19 pm
of course not, he swears on his ipod, silly
March 21st, 2006 at 4:39 pm
You’re making absolutely no sense…
March 21st, 2006 at 5:57 pm
I don’t get it.
So, WITHOUT Apple DRM the “legitimate” downloading market will [would] seem more attractive to new people. That part make sense, sort of… but not really.
Ya totally lost me on the rest fanboy.
March 21st, 2006 at 6:02 pm
Good point. The whole thing smells bad to me. It looks good for music fans at a glance, but when you really look at the provisions it starts to fall apart real fast. Pretty ugly, and unworkable too (IMHO).
March 21st, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Agreed. He’s obviously siding with Apple towards the end. I really did like the beginning, and it’s true that people may go to iTunes for once if it didn’t have any DRM whatsoever (and if the files were lossless with cover scans also, only then might I go). I think the point of any online audio store should be to sell what the CD is going to give you minus the case and CD (so it should save around $.30?).
The problem with this still is the “value” of music in itself. I’d really love to know how they determine value, besides “what’s new has to cost more!”.
Hopefully Apple DOES shut down it’s shop in France and figure out that they cannot do business like that. And then I would hope they learn that it’s unacceptable everywhere else.
Also, in my eyes, DRM has a value of $0.00.
March 21st, 2006 at 10:53 pm
So let me see if I have this right - private copies will only be allowed to the extent permitted by the DRM - so what the hell is the point of the committee??????? - oooohhh you mean a committee made up of Apple and Microsoft representatives (joke)