The French government has been making the news with a proposed change to its laws that would require any songs purchased online to be DRM-free. This is welcome news, but I have lots of problems with this article, and others online that fail to see the point of what this would do. The article includes a statement from Apple that criticizes the law:

“If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers.”

This is a predictable response from Apple given how much it is in bed with the music labels, but they go on to note:

“iPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with “interoperable” music which cannot be adequately protected. Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy.”

The “state-sponsored culture of piracy” part is a bit overdone, somebody should have had a drama-filter on there. The main point is true, though. They would definitely sell more iPods because they would be much more useful, and iTunes without the DRM would quickly crush every other competitor simply because it’s by far the best music store out there. The DRM is the only thing holding it back from even greater domination, really. I would spend much more money there myself. I have had an iPod for a few years now, but I have only purchased 83 songs. I usually try to get CDs because of the DRM.

If the iTunes store came without DRM, there would really be very little need for me to visit a music store, I would much prefer to just get the files digitally. My prediction though is that Apple will close the French iTunes store rather than comply, there’s too much money at risk in the other markets. Can’t say as I blame them, it’s really not their fault the record companies are idiots.