France Says "Oui" to the People in New Law

Filed in archive Consumer Rights , International on July 2, 2006

Liberté, égalité, et fraternité live on in France. The French Senate and the National Assembly approved (1, 2) an intellectual copyright bill oriented to consumers and not the entertainment industry. The law was watered down from the original measure. (See France pushes ahead with enlightened copyright law.) But it still reaches an enlightened position compared to other countries in the world like Spain where DRM is accepted and P2P downloading is a criminal offense for both people and associated businesses.

The new law makes unauthorized downloading a civil offense with a penalty comparable to a parking fine.

A key provision forces media interoperability so that software cannot limit consumer access to legally purchased content. It is aimed at Apple. Apple iTunes software has Digital Restriction Management so files can only be played on iPods and not other MP3 devices.

However there are multiple ways for music and other content distributors to be exempt. Artists can agree to limit their music to a specific format. Or distributors can use a totally proprietary format, such that other companies using that format would infringe on the developer's patent.