French lawmakers approves "iTunes law"

A couple weeks ago, we did a piece on the so-called Digital Rights Movement, and we spent some time telling you about some lawmakers in France who want Apple's iTunes music store to open up it's DMR format to other music players. It's a classic case of consumer's rights versus company's rights. And in France, they just took one step towards settling that issue.

On Friday, France's Senate and National Assembly voted in favor of a copyright bill which could either cause Apple and other music services to open up their formats, or to pull their music players and download stores from the country altogether.

Under this new law, companies would be required to share the required technical data with any rival that wants to offer compatible music players and online stores. But it maintains a loophole which would allow music stores, like iTunes or Napster, to dodge the data-sharing demands by striking new deals with record labels and artists.

Despite the loophole, this new law is not sitting too well with many Americans. The Americans for Technology Leadership, a group that includes major US firms like Microsoft, said that the new law attacks intellectual property rights. "Government-led theft of intellectual property is wrong, whether we're talking about iTunes of Champagne," said the group.

As the digital rights movement continues to gain stream, we'll continue to bring you updates as we get them. (Read the full article) (Read another article)