Apple Computer Inc said a French copyright bill that would require music downloads to be playable on all portable digital players promotes piracy.
"The French implementation of the EU Copyright Directive will result in state-sponsored piracy," Apple said late on Tuesday in an e-mail statement. "If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers."
Apple and its rivals such as Microsoft Corp use different copy-protection software to prevent piracy of music downloads. Songs downloaded from Apple's iTunes can't be played on Microsoft's Windows Media Player, while Apple's iPod won't play songs in Microsoft's format.
"IPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with `interoperable' music, which cannot be adequately protected," Apple said. "Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy."
The French bill calls for companies that implement copyright protection measures to supply "the information essential to interoperability" to those interested at no other charge than the cost of delivering the data. The measure, which passed on Tuesday 296-193 in the 577-member lower house in Paris, has to be cleared by the Senate.
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