France’s Constitutional Council late Thursday released a report declaring unconstitutional some aspects of the country’s so-called “iPod law.” According to an International Herald Tribune article published on the New York Times‘ Web site, the 1789 Declaration on Human Rights was referenced in the council’s conclusion that property protections were being violated by the law.
Reporter Thomas Crampton quoted a French intellectual property lawyer as saying: ” Apple’s lawyers might want to drink a glass of French Champagne today, but not a whole bottle. The Constitutional Council has highlighted fundamental protections for intellectual property in such a way as to put iTunes a little further from risk of the French law.”
Mr. Crampton said that the council’s major findings in its 12-page ruling included elimination of fines for file sharing and declaring that companies could not be forced to open their digital rights management (DRM) to other music devices. Music sold through Apple’s iTunes Music Store can be played only on an iPod. The law would have forced Apple to allow other MP3 players to play those songs, which led the company to suggest that it would exit the French market before it allowed that to happen.
However, the council did allow the possibility that Apple could be forced to open its DRM as long as it was compensated for such action. Jean-Baptiste Soufron, legal director of the anti-copy restrictions group Association of Audionautes, told Mr. Crampton: “It is good news for Apple because they receive monetary compensation, but much bigger bad news if it forces them to license iTunes. We might see the first test case of this by the end of the year.”
The French government now has two options: put the law into effect in its altered state, or bring it before the Parliament again.