Portions of France's copyright law that initially were going to force Apple to open the iTMS + iPod economy for interoperability have now been ruled as unconstitutional. In fact, these provisions have taken almost a complete 180, and they now provide for fining anyone who is caught reverse-engineering DRM in the name of interoperability. Going even further, small fines of 150 euros ($191) for uploading music and 38 euros ($48.50) for downloading it have been replace by steep criminal charges and multiple years of prison time, as well as fines of 500,000 euros ($638,200) - at least that's better than the 'up to $150,000/song' that we have here in the U.S.Whether you consider this a win or a loss for the digital music industry, let's try to keep any resulting discussion civilized boys and girls.
[via CNET]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-02-2006 @ 8:38PM
wAkO said...
LOL! The french cant even win a war (against Apple DRM) in their own country
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8-02-2006 @ 8:54PM
michel said...
>1. LOL! The french cant even win a war (against Apple DRM) in their own country
CIVILIZED?? TOO late for that stupid american forgetting your insane independence wars , yeah, do not thanks France ! and how you were LOOSERS in vietnam and ho wait.. IRAK !
it's A SHAME and UNFORGIVABLE to read stupid prejudice upon France. we can play that game with all countries EVERYDAY.
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and also, keep laughing, you are not the one living with the DADVSI, but you know what ? even DMCA is only the beginning for YOU !
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8-02-2006 @ 9:23PM
Harsh said...
I'm with ya French bro. I'm 100% American, but I totally agree with you. There are far too many...FAR too many misinformed, ignorant Americans that are quick to ridicule other countries without taking a step back and understanding how stupidly patriotic they are. waKo, thanks in advance for once again reinforcing my believe that I'm surrounded by and live with complete fhackin aholes.
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8-02-2006 @ 9:31PM
David Chartier said...
Well hold on here everybody. wAkO's comments might have been out of line, but going to the other extreme and writing off the entirety of America as prejudice and ignorant jerks isn't any better of a deed. Last I heard there are about 300 million Americans, and as Harsh just (thankfully) exemplified: we aren't all prejudice and ignorant.
Prejudice of any kind is a pretty uncool thing, no matter which direction it's headed. Please don't damn the class because of a few bad apples.
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8-02-2006 @ 9:32PM
Alex said...
So that's where France is!
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8-02-2006 @ 9:42PM
ted said...
man, this stinks worse than their cheese and armpit hair! oui oui monsieur!
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8-02-2006 @ 11:37PM
Geoffrey said...
Arguably the French lost in French Indochina which is composed of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Also, at least there aren't deputies in France arguing that the internet is a bunch of tubes. Just imagine if the chair of the committee in congress that made policies concerning the internet in the United States didn't know anything about the internet. Then Net Neutrality would be in trouble.... oh.
But I'm glad the law got reversed. Forcing Apple to open FairPlay is not the best solution in my opinion. I believe under the new terms of the law people are still allowed to put Linux on their iPod which means they can play anything they want. Apple doesn't tie the iPod hardware to the iTunes store, just the iPod's OS. I don't think that is too anti-competition. It is not friendly, but it doesn't justify government intervention.
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8-03-2006 @ 3:53AM
Kasumi-Astra said...
Last time I checked, the iPod's OS was only available on... yep, the iPod. Of course Apple have a monopoly on the iTMS, and it's a shame that such a promising law has now been watered down. And surprise, surprise, it's the music industry that benefits again and the consumers that lose out.
What a shame :-(
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8-03-2006 @ 7:28AM
Ronan said...
Thanks for the diagram of France. Does it have any component parts?
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8-03-2006 @ 7:29AM
Guillaume said...
A question from France about the 'up to $150,000/song in the US'. Does this mean that, for example, a student downloading a few songs on bittorrent could face such charge if he is arrested with his ipod ??
So I suppose that a lot of US students could be run banckrupt easily ??
(And I don't comment about the Irak & Indochina and country stupidity: you have both nice guys and idiots in any country, this is not new and this will not change)
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8-03-2006 @ 8:29AM
Matt said...
France must be a freaking perfect place to live if their politicians have everything running so well that they can spend time writing bad legislation on music players. If France is so upset about this the best way to handle it is to NOT BUY THE FREAKING IPOD - that goes for everyone who doesn't like it. This will change Apple policy a LOT faster than people crying to their government....
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8-03-2006 @ 10:20AM
David Chartier said...
#9: The law in the US, as far as I understand it, allows for charges of 'up to' $150,000 per song if you're caught downloading music illegally from peer to peer networks. We don't have any laws against, for example, ripping a CD you purchased from a music store into iTunes.
With that said, $150K almost never happens, because most of the people the RIAA is suing are their broke teenage fans. Lately, they've resorted to a basic tactic that goes like this:
1) Send the lawsuit
2) Wait for the teenager to calm down a little and stop being scared out of their wits
3) Put an offer on the table, like "pay us $4,000 and this will all go away".
4) Profit.
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