France to Force iTunes DRM Open?

By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Changes to France’s copyright law, which are expected to be voted in this week, may mean that Apple has to open up its FairPlay DRM in France.

Among the changes the controversial legislation will bring in will be measures to effectively dismantle all types of DRM (digital rights management), including the technology that prevent content bought from Apple’s music stores being played on Microsoft devices and vice versa.

The law will enshrine the right to interoperability between content and devices, effectively allowing consumers to break or otherwise circumvent DRM and play music on the MP3 player of their choice. Source: Silicon.com

We Say: It looks like France is becoming more consumer-friendly and less media-corporation-friendly. You may recall the move toward legalization of P2P in France. I’m not a fan of DRM, especially when it gets in the way of what I consider fair use (like personal or backup copies). It’s interesting to note that the French legislation would specifically protect personal copies, and also placed very reasonable (i.e., low) fines on pirated music.