BBC News updates on the French DRM laws that are being considered there (read the story). Basically proprietary DRM wouldn't be allowed. iPods would have to play Windows Media files. Creative players would play iTunes downloads.
Now there's a lot of ifs and buts here. The law needs to get passed and it needs to be enforced. Any potential action here is still a long way off.
But what happens when it does get passed? Would iTunes pull out of the French market? Would Creative owners be able to listen to tracks they'd downloaded from iTunes?
It could mean the technology firms get together and design a universal DRM format which all the labels sign up to. But getting agreement in the industry has always been difficult. And for Apple the use of DRM isn't really about selling tracks, it's about selling iPods.
Or Apple could release a version of iTunes for the French market which allows customers to play their tracks on any media player. But working with a variety of different formats could prove difficult and in these days of a global internet could see the less-restrictive verion of iTunes being used from anywhere in the world.
Or iTunes could just walk away. Leave the French market. It's unlikely Apple will choose to do this - France is a reasonably sized market both for downloads and the iPod. Initially Apple is probably going to find some way to challenge the laws or find some DRM compromise.
But what if they did walk away? The arrival of legitimate download services saw some people move from the filesharing networks to the commercial services. Would the commercial services leaving the market see the reverse?
It's going to be interesting to see the outcome of the French DRM laws if they get passed. France is perhaps the first country to think about DRM from the consumer perspective and it'll be interesting to see how the industry reacts.
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