Are the French coming to their senses in the copyright debate? It's hard to know, relying on generalized media reports in another continent, but an AP story by Laurence Frost and Nathalie Schuck suggests things may be looking up, particularly for artists. Remember, the core issue was iPod interoperability:

Control Rests With Artists

The draft adopted by the Assembly, France's lower house, contained a blanket demand that companies share their exclusive copy-protection technologies with rivals, effectively free of charge.

However, the compromise, due to be approved Thursday by a committee of legislators from both houses, maintains a Senate loophole that could allow Apple and others to sidestep that requirement by striking new deals with record labels and artists.

A new regulatory authority would be given the power to resolve disputes by ordering companies to license their exclusive file formats to rivals -- but only if the restrictions they impose are "additional to, or independent of, those explicitly decided by the copyright holders."

This means that Apple and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Latest News about Sony could avoid having to share their FairPlay and ATRAC3 file formats, lawyers say, if they obtained permission from the artists whose music they sell.

Apple Poised to Leave

Christian Vanneste, the governing party deputy who presented the bill to the Assembly, said that a rival company's right to market compatible products and services would "hang on the will of the copyright holder" under the terms of the compromise.

"It's perfectly legitimate that the artist should decide the potential limitations on the use of his work," he said.

Vanneste and another center-right deputy, Dominique Richard, said the compromise commands "pretty much unanimous" support among the lower house lawmakers who represent the governing Union for a Popular Movement on the joint committee.

It's perfectly legitimate that the artist should decide the potential limitations on the use of his work. Absolutely, a point I make repeatedly. But as I also point out, the conflict here always seems to be between the creator of content and the end-user. And the end-users in France aren't happy with this latest twist.

French consumer groups, which have pressed hard for a strict compatibility requirement, criticized the weaker measures adopted by the Senate last month.

"They're washing their hands of the consumer," said Frederique Pfrunder, a spokesperson for the CLCV, one of the country's main consumer organizations.

I'm glad I'm not a French consumer, because I'd be insulted if one of my "spokespersons" viewed me as so helpless and pathetic. French citizens, like US citizens, have a choice of online music services. They also have a choice of digital music players (every time I go to Europe I see billboards everywhere for the Creative Zen Micro; it seems much bigger over there than here). When the French government won't force Peugeot to make engines that can readily accept Renault or Citroen parts, why should they force Apple to allow Fairplay-formatted songs on a Zen?

These file formats, DRM and all, don't just appear by magic. They're adopted for specific content after negotiations between the content owners and distributors, and reflect a feeling on behalf of both parties that balance has been struck between protection and usability. If consumers disagree, they won't pay, and negotiations can renew on a more forgiving format. Government intervention forcing interoperability prohibits these negotiations, and increases the likelihood of libraries of music not being released at all (see Beatles).

posted by Patrick Ross @ 1:00 PM | DRM & Watermarks, etc., International, Media: Video, Music...

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