Please, please, please, if you want to comment on the news, research it first before trowing out statments that are not correct! be aware of big, out of context headlines that are more than often misleading at best.

First the law is not targeted at Apple at all, Unlike in the U.S. Apple doesn't have a monopoly in Europe where Virgin is a big player. In France Apple has 40%, Virgin 30% and the rest is divided between smaller companies.

Second, the European Community pressured France to pass a law for digital content ( All countries in Europe had one except France) so the French government in a hurry to meet the deadline, wrote and passed this law(the law is flawed, I agree on that much).
The spirit of the law is that if one buy an mp3 player, that person should be able to choose any site to buy music from, and be able to put it on which ever MP3 player(s). The obvious problem is the only way to achieve that, since nobody want's to have a common copy-write protection standard, or design players that can read all copy-write protection standards, is to remove it, which is the unfortunate flaw of that particular law. If, for instance, you buy a television, you assume that it will work with all cable provider in this country, thus the need for a a universal standard, NTSC for the U.S.

Third, as in this country, the law still has to go threw the French Senate before becoming law, who knows what will happen there.

Here is a quote taken from a an other blog on that subject which sumarize the problem very well:

" First, it isn't France targeting Apple and the iTunes music store. Its France trying to mandate a common industry standard for DRM. An article with a headline that reads "French law could force Apple to open iTunes" is more likely to get read or picked up by other news services than one with a headline that reads, "France pushes for common DRM format".
Second, its not France trying to break Apple's perceived monopoly on the online music business. That already went to court in France with the French courts saying there were plenty of alternatives in the market to iTunes and the iPod. People just aren't buying those alternatives, that isn't Apple's fault.

Third, Apple doesn't mandate DRM. The people who provide the content that Apple sells do.

Why does Apple tie the iPod to iTunes? Simple, Apple doesn't sell just the iPod they sell the solution, part of which is iTunes. Why do they do that....besides the fact that yes they make money off the iTunes store? Because they control the total experience and hence can support the product better. Do they do that for the sake of the customer? No not really, it keeps their support costs down, simplifies their product offering, and if they do it right (and it appears they have) sell more product because people like it. Imagine what a pain it would be if you had to support everyone's music library software.
The problem with the industry is all the participants have their own idea how it should work to meet their vision and trust me, those visions are all different and tailored so that you the consumer part with as much cash as they can squeeze out of you. Preferably in the form of a recurring revenue stream via a subscription service"

And last, Apple did put out a statment:

"iPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with 'interoperable' music which cannot be adequately protected. Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy."

remember," Apple doesn't mandate DRM. The people who provide the content that Apple sells do." What makes iTune popular is not its DRM, but it's ease of use and it's flawless integration with ipod. Furthermore, there are plenty of freeware , that can remove DRM and are easilly found on the internet.

Again, it is a very badly written law, I agree, but the spirit of the law does make sense.

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