French Senate Bows Down to the Mighty Apple
Probably not. The bit about providing proprietary codes to rivals in a way that does not weaken DRM sounds like it was invented by...
PARIS, May 12 (UPI) -- The French Senate has softened a lower house bill that Apple Computer Co. called state-sponsored piracy. When the National buttembly approved a measure last month that would have forced Apple to make its iPod music player interoperable, the California company said it would sooner leave France than comply with what it called state-sponsored piracy, the Financial Times reported Friday. Now the upper house has added language to the bill so that a company that agrees to provide its proprietary codes to rivals will receive a license fee along with guarantees that the transfer of information will not weaken its copyright protection measures. Also, the Senate is calling for the creation of an independent Authority for the Regulation of Technical Measures to review demands for information transfers.
It is not known if the Senate's actions will be enough to keep Apple in France.