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French plan would open iTunes to other devices


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#1
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PARIS (Reuters) - France is pushing through a law that would force Apple Computer Inc to open its iTunes online music store and enable consumers to download songs onto devices other than the computer maker's popular iPod player.

Under a draft law expected to be voted in parliament on Thursday, consumers would be able to legally use software that converts digital content into any format.

It would no longer be illegal to crack digital rights management -- the codes that protect music, films and other content -- if it is to enable to the conversion from one format to another, said Christian Vanneste, Rapporteur, a senior parliamentarian who helps guide law in France.

"It will force some proprietary systems to be opened up ... You have to be able to download content and play it on any device," Vanneste told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday.

Music downloaded from Apple's iTunes online music store currently can only be played on iPods.

The law, if enacted, could prompt Apple to shut its iTunes store in France, some industry observers say, to keep from making songs vulnerable to conversion outside France, too.

"The person who will have converted iTunes songs will be able to make it available elsewhere," Marc Guez, head of the French Collecting Society for Music Producers rights (SCPP) told Reuters.

Apple officials in France and Britain did not return calls seeking comment.

The law would also mean that other online French music retailers such as Fnac, part of PPR, would have to make iTunes songs available on their Web sites.

DIGITAL SALES BOOST

Vanneste said the draft law aimed to fight piracy, encourage the development of the online digital music market in France and benefit legal online music retailers.

Record sales tumbled 8 percent in France last year while digital music sales rose fivefold.

Digital sales comprised 5.3 percent, or 259 million euros (179 million pounds), of total 2005 revenue for Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, which is owned by the French group Vivendi.

Under the latest version of the proposed law, people who download material illegally would be subject to a fine of 38 euros and those sharing illegally downloaded material with others would be subject to a fine of 150 euros.

People who make and sell software for illegal file-sharing and content downloading would remain subject to a maximum fine of 300,000 euros and prison sentences of up to three years.

Police agents can monitor music exchange Web sites and trace back the email address of beneficiaries by asking the Internet service provider for it through a court order.

The proposed law would also secure private copies of legally downloaded material, but the number of private copies could be limited and have yet to be determined. DVDs are expected to be excluded from the law, Vanneste said.

The new legislation is triggered by France's need to transpose the European directive on copyrights into its own body of law, which it failed to do by the December 2002 deadline.

Vanneste said France and Spain were the only two EU countries which had yet to make the move.

Guez, from the rights group, said the law would probably not come into force until June. It would still need approval by the Senate, the upper house.

An earlier amendment that would have legalised the use of peer-to-peer networks to download songs and films for a flat monthly fee of several euros has been shelved, Vanneste said.

That proposal was fiercely opposed by music artists, film production houses and record companies.

Some legalised versions of peer-to-peer networks are starting to crop up, however, including one expected to be launched in Germany by Warner Bros, part of Time Warner Inc.
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#2
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PARIS (Reuters) - French deputies finished drafting a law on Friday that would open up Apple's iTunes online music store to portable music players other than its popular iPods.

The new law, now set for a vote on Tuesday, would allow consumers to legally circumvent software that protects copyrighted material -- known as digital rights management (DRM) -- if it is done to convert digital content from one format to another.

Government officials said the law was aimed at preventing any single media playing operating system, whether Apple's iTunes or Microsoft's Windows Media Player, from building a dominant position.

"We must not permit neither piracy nor the emergence of a monopoly," Christian Vanneste, Rapporteur, a senior parliamentarian who helps guide law in France, told Reuters in a telephone interview on Friday.

Currently, songs purchased from the market-leading iTunes service can only be played on iPods or Motorola's iTunes mobile phone, and iPods are not compatible with music that uses DRM from rival companies like Microsoft.

The law could potentially hurt sales of iPods in France if consumers were able to play iTunes songs on other players. Some industry observers predicted that Apple would prefer to close down its French iTunes store rather than comply with the new law.

Apple representatives in the US, Great Britain and France did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

COMPLEX LEGISLATION

The new law is due for a vote in France's National Assembly on Tuesday and will then be sent to the upper house, the Senate, for approval.

A spokesman for the French parliament told Reuters the vote was postponed until next week partly due to the complexity of the proposed legislation.

The law, which the government says is designed to boost the legal digital music market, is expected to go into effect by the French parliament's summer recess.

Consumers are prepared to pay twice as much for a song that can freely move between different devices, a recent study of the

European Union project Indicare showed.

"We cannot accept that numerical data is available in one language that cannot be translated into another," Vanneste said. "Bypassing DRMs to allow this translation will no longer be illegal under this law."

OTHER RETAILERS IMPACTED

The law would also affect French online music stores such as Fnac, part of retail group PPR, Virgin, whose French retail operations are owned by media group Lagardere and Vivendi Universal Music, part of the telecoms and media group Vivendi.

For example, on its French website, Fnac tells customers they need Microsoft's Windows Media Player to download songs.

No one at Fnac was available for comment.

The draft legislation also comes with new sanctions. People who download material illegally would be subject to a fine of 38 euros ($46.26) and those sharing illegally downloaded material with others would face fines of 150 euros.

People who make and sell software for illegal file-sharing would remain subject to a maximum fine of 300,000 euros and prison sentences of up to three years. Police agents monitor would be able to monitor file-sharing networks and trace email addresses by issuing a court order to the Internet service provider.

The proposed law would also secure the right to make private copies of legally downloaded material, but the number of private copies could be limited and has yet to be determined.

DVDs have been excluded from the law for now.

The new legislation comes from France's need to transpose the European Union directive on copyrights into its own body of law, which it failed to do by the December 2002 deadline.

France and Spain are the only EU countries that still have to make the move, Vanneste said.

An earlier amendment to the law, which would have legalised the use of peer-to-peer networks to download songs and films for a flat monthly fee of several euros, was killed by fierce opposition from artists, film production houses and record companies.
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#3
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PARIS (AFP) - A copyright bill before the French parliament on downloading music and films from the Internet could induce the leading online music store, Apple Computer's iTunes, to leave France as it would be opposed to opening up its proprietary system, several experts said.

Apple has always refused to allow its paid-for music files downloaded via iTunes to be converted into another format, which would allow them to be listened to on a music player other than its iPod.

But French lawmakers Thursday adopted two amendments insisting on "interoperability", which would permit an Internet user to copy and read downloaded files on a service of his choice.

When questioned about the bill, Apple France had no comment.

However, according to the experts, Apple could decide to pull its music download business out of the French market if the measure bypassing so-called digital rights management is definitely adopted into law.

Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs, has insisted that the success of his iPod, which beats all the competition in portable music players, is due to the coherent development, from player to software, of the system.

Since 2003 Apple has sold music online at its iTunes Music Store in a proprietary format. To take advantage of the music downloads, the Internet user must have the appropriate player, which is the iPod.

In February Apple announced that its online paying iTunes Music Store, which offers two million titles, had passed the milestone of one billion downloads.

The bill bypassing digital rights management would also require other music portals -- such as Sony, Virgin, FNAC -- to make their catalogue available in the Apple format.

The controversial French bill also includes prison terms and large fines to stamp out illegal downloading of music and film by hackers possessing or using software to remove copyright protection.
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