French parliament approves law against piracy

COLLAB distinguished with the APDC / Siemens Innovation Award

The French Parliament today approved by majority the controversial copyright law that over the last few months has generated controversy in the country, mainly due to the disagreement of companies like Apple that under the new legislation may be forced to share technical information with your competitors.

As TeK had already reported, the legislation defends interoperability and intends to create conditions for the user to be able to use the songs acquired in a specific service in any digital music player.

For proprietary services such as iTunes, the legislation requires the sharing of technical information, controlled by an independent entity created in the meantime, to ensure interoperability.

In addition to being far from the original version, after introducing a set of amendments that made the text softer, this final version of the legislation also includes a paragraph that may prevent an expected departure from iTunes in France.

According to this paragraph, companies can try to circumvent the legislation by making an appeal to the independent body that will be responsible for managing the shared information, claiming the need to keep access to this type of information protected from its competition.

It should be recalled that Apple had already considered the French legislative proposal for state piracy and during the process it was always unwilling to review its market strategy, something that it may have to rethink in other European countries, since it too Norway and Sweden have been contesting the exclusive strategy between iTunes and iPod of the American brand.

Related News:

2006-06-23 – Parliamentary committee softens positions of copyright law in France

2006-06-09 – Apple pressed for exclusivity between iPod and iTunes