Cherchez Le "State-Sponsored Piracy"!
The United States' oldest enemy is poised to deliver a savate-style kick in the groin to Apple:
On Tuesday French lawmakers voted 296 to 193 in support of a law that would stop Apple, plus any other firm selling music downloads, using proprietary software to limit what people can do with tracks they have bought.
The draft law now goes to the Senate—the upper house of the French parliament—for final approval before it gets on to the statute books.
If the draft becomes French law it will mean that firms selling music must make available information about the software they use to stop songs being copied—so-called Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems.
Apple's response? This is "state-sponosored piracy." And: "If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers."
More here.