France Rolls Over on DRM Rights Law - Fails to Mandate Interoperability as Hoped

June 23, 2006 at 5:21 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Categories: DRM as Market Lock, International Legal Reform

The original proposed French legislation would have, among many other things, forced Apple to open up iTunes DRM to third-party licensing (or legal hacking) so that consumers can play purchased in one on-line music site on portable music devices and computers that are designed to work with another music store. The final bill out of committee settled on a system keeping DRM technologies entirely proprietary and unlicenseable when the copyright owner approves. This final bill is expected to be voted on in parliament on June 30.

Dale’s Comment: Apple and the RIAA/ifpi have one another victory in the ongoing war over consumer rights in electronic music purchases. With the control over the online music distribution industry that Apple and the music labels have, its unlikely that even the most successful artists with the most leverage would ever disapprove of this system. If an artist disapproved of the online distribution system, they’d likely be shut out. It’s hard to imagine Apple and the music industry would create an alternative rights system for such copyright owners to use if they “disapproved” of the current consumer unfriendly system. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden will be the next battle grounds.