A law passed by the French Senate would result in a blow to how Apple controls its iTunes Music Store. At present, songs purchased off of iTunes can only be played on your PC (with QuickTime installed) or an iPod. No other portable MP3 players can play Apple's files, or so everyone thinks. The law-to-be would force Apple to allow songs purchased on iTunes to be played on any device. This would be a blow to their business model, due to the ties between the iPod and iTunes. Of course, this has farther-reaching consequences, as it'd make it legal in France to crack DRM for the purpose of switching formats.

It's about time this happened. One of my biggest complaints against Apple is its monopoly in the digital music space. Countries and states complained at Microsoft's monopoly over the market, yet it seems to have been quiet about Apple's own monopoly. Forcing music you don't own (Apple Computer is not a label, contrary to popular belief) to only work on your product is not only wrong, it's predatory. If Microsoft is punished for their actions, Apple should be too. No exceptions just because one of them is "trendy" at the moment.

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