French Senate passes watered down DRM bill
As expected, the French Senate passed a controversial copyright bill on Wednesday -- and, also as expected, the bill dropped key provisions on DRM interoperability that were included in a previous version approved by the country's National Assembly. The earlier version had included language that would have required companies such as Apple Computer to open their proprietary DRM to consumers and competitors, so that music protected via one DRM scheme could be played on all digital audio players, regardless of manufacturer. The Senate's version of the bill pays lip service to the interoperability concept, but leaves enforcement up to a new government agency -- and exempts companies from the requirement as long as the original copyright holders agree to have their works protected by proprietary DRM. In Apple's case, that may mean renegotiating contracts with record companies to include such language. However, given that Steve Jobs recently managed to get the labels to back down on their demands that he offer flexible pricing, chances are he'll have no problem getting them to agree that Apple's FairPlay DRM is, well, fair play.
Filed under: Portable Audio
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt @ May 11th 2006 2:44PM
Does anyone know if the old version of the bill would have required Apple and MS to open source the DRM - or would it only require Apple to license Fairplay similar to how MS already licenses PFS to various hardware manufacturers?
Open sourcing it is obviously a bad idea, but simply requiring Apple to license Fairplay is not a bad idea.
E-Rock @ May 11th 2006 4:19PM
#1, unless you're Apple. ;) Removing the lock-in of iTunes (which is merely a break-even operation to push iPod hardware) would be a big hit.
steve @ May 11th 2006 5:40PM
i hope i can get a proggy to convert all the stuff i download to unprotected mp3 without a loss in quality
Tom @ May 11th 2006 7:34PM
The first Apple article ever done by Engadget with no sarcastic remarks!! Enjoy it while you can, cause it wont happen again ;-)
lindsay @ May 12th 2006 4:21AM
I found this site on the web and I thought you would be interested.
http://www.apponipod.com
Stormaes @ May 12th 2006 6:12AM
#6: I dont get it
#4: Almost as soon as Apple/Microsoft/Intel releases some sort of DRM software/hardware expect to see some app made by some disgruntled programmer to emerge that will do that for you
My opinion is that Apple and the other manufacturers are not concerned with compatibility, they care about profits, if they can force you to buy 5 different formats of the same album/song then all the better for them. If you cant play it on your specific iPod or mp3 player thats _your_ problem not theirs. As far as they are concerned you should have bought their media player because it supports their formats. Apple will convince all the copyright holders to support them because it means more of your money goes into their pockets.
Peace
charlie @ May 12th 2006 9:28AM
At least the french are consistent. They talk a lot, but when the rubber hits the road, they wimp out. Shades of the Vichy government here!
They have probably already forgotten all about what they were protesting about anyway. I am sure they have moved on to protest burger king, or imported cheese, or deodorant companies or something.