The draft law is to be debated by the Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday before being sent to the Upper House under a streamlined emergency procedure invoked by the government with the aim of quickly bringing France into line with a 2001 European Union law on copyright protection.
Essentially, the measure would allow companies making CDs, DVDs or other products with digital files on them to include technical measures that would stop users directly making copies, and would make it illegal for anybody to try to break those measures.
Allowing such restrictions, however, could render discs unreadable on car stereos or on computers — and undermine the right of individual users to make personal copies of legally bought works.
