Apple will pull out of France rather than accede to their demands. We will not deal with terrorists.

Every single one of my CDs works in iTunes and on my iPod. It is not a locked system since the iTunes/iPod system works with the method by which 98% of the worlds music is sold (the other 2% being online competitors to iTMS). How on earth can you possibly claim that a system that works with 98% of the music that is sold in the world is a locked in system? That is totally absurd. There is just no other way to describe it. ABSURD!

Apple's competitors in France have the option to sell music files that work on the iPod (mp3, aiff, etc) but they CHOOSE not to in exactly the same way that Apple CHOOSE not to sell files that will work on competitors products. Mean while consumers CHOOSE the system Apple has put in place because the competition suck at making good software/players.

The French government is doing what they have always best, s**** the French people. But I am looking forward to MS being forced to make WMP DRM work on Macs. And since these iTunes competitors will be forced to make their music playable on iPods (Apple will just pull the plug on French iTMS) then they are going to have to sell their music with no DRM. Do you seriously think the record labels are going to go along with this? I don't think so.

So Apple pulls the iTMS out of France. As does every other online music provider because they can't make the labels agree to DRM free music so they can meet the terms of the new law. Once again the French government is s******* the people. But at least they do it openly and don't try and hide the fact.

Next target: FRANCE! Let's give em some music boys :D

Why should Apple allow their competitor to play iTMS music? Apple is in business to make money, that's why they have it. Apple isn't in the business to help other companies.

So what if they are leveraging iPod and iTMS to sell more iPods?!?!?

MSFT cancelled WMP for OS X and never delivered a way to purchase and play DRM'd music on OS X so why should I care if iTMS only works with the iPod directly? As a Mac user, I cannot use the default OS and the OS of my choice to make use of WMA stores anyway.

Someone mentioned DVDs as a counter example. DVDs most certainly do have DRM. They have region encoding which only makes it possible to play them in certain regions. Beyond that DVDs can only be played, not copied. The DRM built-in to every DVD player (including the one in my MacBook) makes it very difficult to make backups of my DVDs or to transfer them to my iPod.

Apple's DRM on iTunes makes backups easy and supports burning the files to CD or even sharing them with four friends through streaming.

My question for the French would be whether this will finally open up DVDs so I can make fair use of their content like I can with CDs.

of France for iTunes Music Store. Big deal... Apple will sell just as many iPods (maybe more) so that the French can load them up with legally and illegally distributed songs that (by their law) must play on all players.

The French lawmakers don't have a clue. Apple doesn't make a huge profit from iTMS. This is not going to make Apple open up their DRM. It's going to force everyone else to support iPod, and since Apple also holds the cards on what type of DRM'ed songs can play on iPods, that means there will be no DRM (or no more legal digital music providers in France). And that's a win for Apple, because they make the best and most popular player (whether the songs on it are legally obtained or pirated).

Apple's leadership must be smirking about this one...

The French law just got shot down in commitee so that's history. As for the Danish government, there as dumb as the French. Apple won't put up with it if they pass something just like they wouldn't have with the French. If they pass any law Apple will just shutdown iTunes and then the Danish can pirate there music cause that will be the only way they'll get anything online without iTunes.

@ beeble

It doesn't matter what format the files from competing files are in, they still will not play on the iPod if they have proprietary DRM on them. Meanwhile, Apple has refused to license their DRM, Fairplay, to anyone (with the exception of Motorola for the iTunes phones) which would make files capable of playing on the iPod. Other stores don't "CHOOSE" to not have their songs play on iPods, Apple "CHOOSES" to NOT allow others to play their songs on the iPod.

It has nothing to do with song formats, but with DRM. No one is talking about "DRM free music," but about a DRM which will allow all music sold online to play on any device which is capable of playing a particular format. As of now, the French government is saying that since Apple refuses to license the DRM, which allows iTMS tracks to only play on iPods and only iPods to play iTMS tracks, that people should have the right to crack the DRM.

I agree with that completely.

Apple is the one not playing nice with others. If those with digital music players buy music online they are either A) forced to buy music from the iTMS because they have an iPod, or B) forced to buy music from a competitor because they don't.

Most of us don't feel "forced" to use the iTMS because, in general, (IMO) it is a better and more user friendly buying experience than using alternative online music stores. However, if one decided that they wanted an iPod because of whatever reason (they are better, they are "in", they have a maximum volume control, etc), but decided that the iTMS wasn't the ideal online music store for them, they would be stuck. Their online choices have been eliminated because Apple won't allow them to go anywhere else to satisfy their digital music needs.

Make no mistake. When you purchase an iPod, you have also purchased the iTMS. They are a package deal. So long as you buy an iPod, you must use the iTMS if you want to purchase online, and vice versa. If you buy a track from the iTMS, you must also purchase an iPod if you want a digital music player. If one product necessitates another, then it is, by every definition, a closed system.

We, as iPod users (I have 2 myself) are given only 1 alternative to the iTMS, which is purchasing CDs. That is not much of a choice at all. If I CHOOSE to buy music online, I MUST use the iTMS as there are NO alternatives. How is this consumer friendly? What if, in 5 years, the iPod is a washed up piece of junk? Hundreds, or maybe even thousands of dollars of music bought from the iTMS are completely useless. How is this right?

As a consumer I want full choices in what I buy, and not a watered down selection that a company sees fit to allow me to have.

If the law went into effect, it would essentially mean DRM-less downloads, because Apple controls both the most popular music player AND the most popular download service. That means Apple can say "NO MORE iTMS in France, but we'll keep selling you iPods, and here's the software (called iTunes) to rip your CDs."

However, the other music download providers will have to support the most popular music player (iPod) with their DRM'd songs, by law. But Apple won't support those other DRM formats, because "Hey, in France, the iPod is only for ripping and listening to CDs. We do not support music downloads in France." So to comply with the stupid French law, the other music download providers will need to provide a file format iPods can play (music with no DRM), or leave the business, just like iTMS. I think the French lawmakers finally realized all of this...

"What if, in 5 years, the iPod is a washed up piece of junk? Hundreds, or maybe even thousands of dollars of music bought from the iTMS are completely useless. How is this right?"

It's not any more right or wrong than my dusty collection of music casette tapes. I don't want to play that format anymore (and my old tape player barely works), but I'm not complaining about not being able to somehow convert them for free into CDs. That would be great, but I don't expect it to happen. Yes, I can go through the effort of digitizing the tapes by playing them one last time into an audio file, using available software. And if you really wanted to, you can go through some extra steps and convert Apple DRM'd files into whatever future format you are imagining, using available software.

In other words, you have all the reasonable choices you need. The choices you are imagining are commendable and certainly "consumer friendly," but unreasonable. Just like the French lawmakers.

The problem is DRM. The fact is that every legitimate user out there wont pirate music. It's only the criminals that do.

The problem is the recording industry. They are vampires. They want monopoly power and control. They want to suck the life-blood out of the artists and the consumer.

DRM is the law of the land. Apple has leveraged this stupid DRM to it's advantage. Now the techno-music industry/leftist pinko frenchies are wining. Pussies.

your all stupid republicans, even if you dont know it. what's with all the racism? (or discrimination) what did the french do to you? just so you know, hating the french really makes you sound like a republican, and everyone hates repubicans. also, stop buying from the itms you idiots, why would anyone pay .99 for a crappy audio file with no physical artwork or packaging? and furthermore, dont buy any technology, it wont work with what you have. or just do some research first.

ok, aside from making fun of republicans (too easy) seriously, whats the problem with apples policy? dont buy songs from itunes if you dont like it. that simple. god they act like ipods and aacs are a god given right. apple has the right to be idiots, you have a right to ignore them, not pass laws to ban them. if there policies are bad, they will not get your business, and they will lose. you can go back to your cds. its not like the ipod limits what you can put on it. so you baught a song that will only play on an ipod, i baught software that will only work on a pc/mac and only that specific pc/mac. its called copy protection. buy your itunes c*** assuming its for your ipod and your fine. my vinyl, tape, and now cd collections are obsolete and i cant even find an 8track player anywhere. ipods were awesome b4 the itms anyhow. take it for what it is folks. when will we see similar legislation passed for the cell phone companys haha. stop buying from itms for the record, i do love apple, and i think they are smart to do what they do (because they make tons of !$ on it) but for me its not worth the .99

and while im at it, s**** aac and mp3s what ever happened to aiff? i want my 16 bits of dynamics and 44100 samples per second. its so lame that we accept lesser and lesser quality when we could be all listening to beautiful 24bit 96k audio or super audio cds or the like or surround sound with all of the above. i record music at 24bit 88.2k and whats the point when everyone who listens will make an mp3 of it anyhow. people dont know what they are missing. sure 24bit takes twice as much space and so does 88.2k but come on our storage capacity doubles every 9 months or something like that. soon the size of an mp3 will be analogous to the size of a text file. then well worry about how to compress our hdtv to fit on our ipods. then eventually holograms. heres a tip: offer aiffs at least and i will buy from your online music store. until then