Apple Rearranges Beret, Shouts 'Non' To French DRM Law
from the that-didn't-take-long dept
Yesterday we wrote about the French law that would require companies to make their DRM interoperable. Our recommendation was that Apple, the main company affected, should view France as an experiment to see how this law altered the digital music market (another plus, which we didn't mention, is that if the law turns out to be a disaster, they can point that out to critics and governments elsewhere.). Well, Apple wasted little time ignoring our advice, promptly calling France a pirate state, and warning that legal music sales would plummet. Of course, it's hard to see how making legal sales more flexible will encourage illegal file trading. One aspect of the law, which remains unclear, is a potential clampdown on fair use. It's possible the government may set an artibtrary limit on the number of personal copies an individual can make of their music. The music industry, which doesn't understand the difference between fair use and piracy, would obviously hope to see this limit set quite low. It would be interesting to see what would happen if the French law liberally allowed fair use, but cracked down on obvious piracy and file trading. That would put many of the more radical anti-DRM activists in an awkward position, since they usually claim that their main gripe with the technology is that it's limiting to personal use, when in fact, many just want free stuff. It would also put the music companies in an awkward position since they use the piracy argument as cover for trying to get users to buy multiple copies of the same media. If the French law is crafted and implemented well, it could improve the position for consumers, while revealing the intentions of all sides on this issue.
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Apple PR blunder
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It's about Control
MacNN
Apple "were always going to have a very strong reaction,'' said Jonathan Arber, an analyst at Ovum. "This is a pretty big threat to them and something they don't want to see happen.'' The iTunes business model "is built on its very lack of interoperability with other devices and services,'' Arber said.
Bloomberg
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French law making
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Good move by Apple.
Apple probably doesn't care one way or the other since iPod sales may increase if tunes can be purchased from anywhere.
Their current music sales contracts probably won't allow them to do this, but if France makes them they can at least say they tried to the RI/MPAA.
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picky picky picky
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Way to go...
Apple's motivations are clear -- from a business standpoint, the iTMS/iPod hardware combination are a winning product, if that product will no be allowed to prosper in a certain market, then perhaps they should cut their losses and leave. The Frenchies' motivation is far less clear. Forcing DRM interoperability is like forcing companies that manufacture tape players to be able to play CDs. I simply can't understand why governments have to force private enterprises to build custom products from them. If you don't like the product the way it is, don't fucking buy it. I still just buy CDs and rip them to whatever I want for my own fair use. Perhaps an initiative to reaffirm and clarify fair use that isn't bundled with an attack on Apple would be far more beneficial to the consumer.
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Re: Way to go...
by the argument "If you don't like the product the way it is, don't fucking buy it.", why so many people complain about Windows OS?
I personally think open music is great idea....I would love to use iPod playing ogg, flac, wma...whatever format I feel comfortable using....or maybe use some other hardware with iTunes since I would hate to buy plugin everytime new iPod model comes out and older addons don't work with new model...
and acutally there ARE tape players that play CDs...it's called a boombox....
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My opinion is...
The reasons I pirate (in order of importance):
1.) I can't get the most music I listen to on ANY pay site (when I DO buy, I order from amazon.de).
2.) I refuse to pay the same or more for an electronic copy of an album that:
A.) Has less overhead involved for distribution so it should cost significantly less
B.) Is locked down so I can't directly transfer it to my VX9800 for portability.
3.) Out of spite for the fact the recording industy has thier head up thier 4th point of contact...remember them suing Diamond Multimedia back in the day?
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Re: My opinion is...
Is anyone else out there counting various combinations of body parts and/or sense organs to figure out what points one through three are?
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Re: Re: My opinion is...
http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/fourth_point_of_contact/
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Not sure who to make fun of more!
How long until the Mac tanks drive right around it and parade through the Arc de Triomphe?
Either way this fight will be entertaining- the poor souls caught in the middle are French Mac users. So who cares?
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This is NOT an iTunes Law...
That said, I'm not sure why the government is legislating this instead of dealing with:
- second major set of riots this year
- abject failure to integrate immigrants
- utter economic noncompetitiveness
- rampant unemployment (highest in the EU?)
- collapsing social model
Oh right, it's because Apple is American and it's good to stick it to America.
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France: How To Be Passionately Irrelevant
Of course Apple isn't going to go for this drivel - and anyone who suggests that they should or by any common sense, even could...
..must be another brilliant graduate of those fine French business and economic schools.
Nobody at Apple is losing sleep over this.
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state-sponsored piracy
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Go France Go
I hope, hope, hope that other countries follow their lead.
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We surrender!
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Oh, wait, I don't buy locked down music. Or CDs. My local music scene gives me (a 33 year old exec) all the music I need legally. I still have my ~400 or so CDs from growing up, but I don't need RIAA downloads, or CDs. I've ripped all the greats from my childhood, and what new music I listen to is legally given to me.
The one exception is new classical performances. I do still buy those. I doubt there's much of a fanboy base there, though.
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Re: Way to go...
That's not even close to a good analogy. An MP3 is still an MP3, whatever DRM is in force on it. A better analogy would be, buying a CD signed by Sony only working on your Sony Hi-Fi, not your Panasonic, Technics, etc.
I have an iRiver, therefore I don't buy off iTunes - simple. If Apple takes DRM off iTunes, I can buy from iTunes and everyone wins. Simple.
Personally, I'm disappointed in Apple's stance here. They had a real chance to look like the good guys in the industry (even if that's questionable in reality), with only a small amount of risk to their profits in what is a small market for them.
Maybe I just expect too much....
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Re: Re: Way to go...
I dont understand the comment that says that a world with interoperable DRM is a world with no DRM> explain that to me.... surley a world with interoperable DRM is a world with one standard thats the same across the board... and besides a world without DRM is a world with file sharing - ohhh thats right we already have that....
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