Leading French lawmakers voted Thursday to water down a draft copyright law that could force Apple Computer to make its iPod music player and iTunes online store compatible with rivals’ offerings.
But the changes did not appear to go far enough to satisfy Apple, which dropped the strongest hint yet that it might withdraw from the French downloading market rather than comply.
Currently, music bought on Apple iTunes can be played only on iPods, and an iPod cannot play songs bought from rival stores, like the Sony store Connect. Critics have called the restrictions anticompetitive and anticonsumer.
The National Assembly, France’s lower house, voted in March to force companies like Apple and Sony to hand over exclusive copy-protection technologies to any rival that wanted to offer compatible music players and online stores.
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