Apple Thinks French Bill Will Lead to Incresed iPod Sales and Piracy

The digital copyright bill that will force developers to reveal details of their technology to all rivals was approved yesterday. This bill would affect all manufacturers of portable music devices and music download services.

"The French implementation of the EU Copyright Directive will result in state-sponsored piracy," said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. 'If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers."

While the law is geared towards the consumer, whom it aims to protect from 'vendor lock-in,' it will also serve to lessen the level security that has been reached.
"iPod sales will likely increase as users freely upload their iPods with 'interoperable' music which cannot be adequately protected," Kerris said. "Free movies for iPods should not be far behind."

If the law passes, every company would be forced to share their DRM information with all other companies, all of them, from the biggest to the smallest. This creates a hug potential for the information to be 'leaked' with so many people having access to it. Furthermore, if the information is ever 'leaked' to the general public, it won't be a simple manner of Apple upgrading iTunes, as all the other manufacturers will need to be informed and to react so that everyone is using the same version.

While the bill also touches on the subject of illegal sharing and peer-to-peer networks, laws regarding this have historically proved to be futile and very difficult to enforce without actively violating the consumers rights and looking at what they are doing without their knowledge.