Iria

French parliamentarians finished drafting a law on Friday that would open up Apple Computer's market-leading iTunes online music store to portable music players other than its popular iPods.

The new law, now set for a vote on Tuesday, would allow consumers to circumvent software that protects copyrighted material--known as digital rights management (DRM)--if it is done to convert digital content from one format to another. Such circumvention is currently illegal in much of the world.

The law, which the government says is designed to boost the legal digital music market, is expected to go into effect by the French parliament's summer recess. It is designed to adapt the country's copyright rules to the fast changing market for online content.

Currently, songs purchased from the market-leading iTunes service can only be played on iPods or Motorola's iTunes mobile phone, and iPods are not compatible with music that uses DRM from rival companies like Microsoft.
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Read More / Source: News.com