PARIS, FRANCE – A measure approved by the French National Assembly this week would require online music vendors to make songs available for use on any and all digital music players and not just proprietary technologies or players offered by strategic partners.While most reporting has focused on the implications for Apple’s popular iTunes store and iPod digital music players, other companies that have proprietary Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems and/or have devices that play back only specifically encoded music files would also be affected.
Representatives for Apple in France have not commented on the new legislation, which now moves to the French Senate for a vote. Industry analysts have suggested that rather than comply with the new law and share or grant access to their proprietary technologies, Apple might just stop selling online music in the French market. The effects of the law could go well beyond the French digital music market, however.
Intellectual property expert William Hart, from the New York office of the firm Proskauer Rose, told MacObserver.com that “To understand the significance of the issue, you have to realize why encryption exists in the first place.”
“Given the ease with which digitized works can be spread and reduplicated and transmitted to potentially millions of unauthorized users, there was a strong need to protect author interests by using technological measures to prevent unauthorized access and copying of these digital files,” Hart said
Hart notes that countries participating in existing international treaties which govern international copyright law and intellectual property rights are “required to provide adequate legal remedies against defeating or circumventing those encryption measures.”
“I am not aware that the treaty imposes any obligation to make the technologies used by one company compatible with another, Hart said. “(I)f the French legislation, as enacted, requires ‘open’ systems or ones which require sharing of the encryption and decryption protocols among various manufacturers of devices and software, there is certainly the potential to expose that technology to unauthorized intrusions/access. By doing so, you invite the very risk that the technology and companion laws on anti-circumvention were designed to prevent – widespread, unauthorized access and copying of content.”
The domestic Apple entity has not been as reserved as its French counterpart in commenting on the proposed legislation; in a statement released this week, Apple called the new bill “state-sponsored piracy.”
“If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers,” said Apple in the statement.
Apple’s critics say the company is simply trying to maintain its stranglehold over the digital music industry, and continue the strong sales of their iPod line of players. That is also the line the French government has taken, saying that the law was drafted to insure that no one company can dominate the digital music download market.
Apple counters that it’s not the sales of iPods the company is concerned about, but the integrity of intellectual property and copyrighted materials.
“iPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with ‘interoperable’ music which cannot be adequately protected,” Apple stated in its release. “Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy.”
