French Law to Open iTunes?

Mac Rumors ^ | 03/13/2006

[Panerai]

Yahoo reports that France is pushing through a law that would ultimately force Apple to open its iTunes music store to other devices.

The new law would allow consumers to be able to legally use software to convert digital content into any format.

It would no longer be illegal to crack digital rights management -- the codes that protect music, films and other content -- if it is to enable to the conversion from one format to another

This would allow protected content to be playable on any device. If enacted, some speculate that Apple could shut down the French iTunes store to limit the free distribution of the unprotected songs. To combat the resultant piracy, the law reportedly also adds fines for those who download and distribute material illegally. Meanwhile, individuals who make or sell software for illegal sharing could be subject to jail time.

[Panerai]

ping

[Izzy Dunne]

The new law would allow consumers to be able to legally use software to convert digital content into any format.

I can picture the crowds of people who fly themselves and their computers to France so they can convert their files...

[martin_fierro]

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[tubebender]

The UN can't be to far behind :(

[kx9088]

I bought my wife an iPod Shuffle last month, I signed her up for iTunes.

As I'm downloading some songs for her I notice the file extension and realize that I can't use them on my iRiver if I wanted to.

It would be nice if I could download my music from iTunes also for my iRiver.

[Izzy Dunne]

I can't use them on my iRiver if I wanted to.

Why not? Doesn't the iRiver play MP3s? Have you missed the "Convert Selection to MP3" option?

[kx9088]

I must have missed that option? In iTunes?

[Paul C. Jesup]

Well if this ruling leads to other things, it may be worth learning French (NOT moving to France) to have a non-DRM Vista OS.

[Izzy Dunne]

My mistake - it doesn't work directly anymore. Now it says "protected songs cannot be converted to another format". However, you can burn it to CD, import it as MP3, then ship it to your whatever. It's not that painful.

Apple could have made it easier (previous versions did), but they don't want to trumpet it too much. They're trying to walk a tightrope. They've done a good job of that. They can't be TOO open about it, or the RIAA will be on them. They can't avoid it altogether, or the customers will be disappointed, as you are.

They've given you the tools, but they can't make it too obvious, for political, not for technical reasons.