Source: Bloomberg
Give me a break, Apple. What's the real story here? The RIAA and the record labels desire to control media 24/7, or your desire to kill all other players and keep a tight control on the mp3 player market--kind of Microsoft-like monopolistic style?
March 22 (Bloomberg)--Apple Computer Inc. said a French copyright bill that would require music downloads to be playable on all portable digital players promotes piracy.
"The French implementation of the EU Copyright Directive will result in state-sponsored piracy," Cupertino, California-based Apple said late yesterday in an e-mailed statement. "If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers."
The bill, the implementation of a European Union directive, calls for digital songs to be playable on all devices. Apple and rivals such as Microsoft Corp. use different copy-protection software to prevent piracy, meaning song downloads from Apple's iTunes can't be played on Microsoft's Windows Media Player and Apple's iPod won't play songs in Microsoft's format.
Apple "were always going to have a very strong reaction," said Jonathan Arber, an analyst at Ovum. "This is a pretty big threat to them and something they don't want to see happen." The iTunes business model "is built on its very lack of interoperability with other devices and services," Arber said.
I'm not one of the recording industry tools, and I'm just not buying the "opening iTunes opens the floodgate to piracy" argument.
Tags: [Apple], [France], [French implementation of the EU Copyright Directive will result in state-sponsored piracy], [digital songs to be playable on all devices], [making digital songs playable on all devices will not promote piracy, Apple]
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