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France to force Apple to open iPod DRM?
L'Hexagone overhauls piracy laws...

By Jo Best

Published: Tuesday 14 March 2006

A law currently making its way through the French parliament could see Apple's FairPlay DRM opened up.

Changes to the French droit d'auteur (copyright) law, currently being debated in parliament, are expected to be voted in this week.

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.

In a recent parliamentary debate, Dominique Richard, a deputé for the UMP coalition, described the law as instituting "interoperability that will stop content being the hostage of technology and authorise creativity using free [as in speech] software".

The law will also overhaul the country's legal system with regard to music piracy, giving those convicted of downloading pirated music a fixed €38 fine and those convicted of illegally making music available for download a €150 fine.

The legislation will also protect the right to make "personal copies" of content, such as music CDs.

ZDNet France's Estelle Dumout contributed to this article