Apple Sued in France for iPod Music Royalties

alex_guy_CA writes "A musicians rights group in France is suing Apple Computer for back royalties due from iPod sales. It seems in France, all CDs, hard drives, and the like owe musicians money in case any of it is used for piracy. Only Apple isn't paying up." I want compensation from sales of Microsoft Windows just in case it is used for spreading viruses.

Comments

Re:What a law...

[Pieroxy]

You know how french people are! They would say "Fuck off" faster than you can think and M$ would just loose the french market. You can't take a whole country as hostage. Everyone (in other countries) would think: "Ummm, I should be more carerul, these MS guys really are supidier than I thought. I'll get some Linux just in case..."

I'm glad you're reading slashdot, that means you're not an executive. Your company would fail in no time with such tactics ;-)

Re:What a law...

[Half-pint HAL]

Please don't be so US-centric! The DMCA is not a French law, and this is French litigation we're talking about.

Do you know the finer points of French fair-use legislation? It's likely to be quite different from your own.

HAL

Re:I don't agree with the law

[poot_rootbeer]

When bird flu was found in Delaware and the EU banned imports of US poultry due to safety concerns, the US "retaliated" and banned certain European imports.

To alter a familiar quote: It's the economics, stupid.

The ban had the effect of changing the level of exports out of the US. Unless the level of imports into the US was adjusted to compensate, a trade imbalance would result.

This wasn't petty revenge, it was a considered effort to maintain trade equity.

Re:Americans laughing at the French

[diablobynight]

Ummm...Americans owe the french, France was around for centuries and failed to have an army that could keep them from being marched over. But we owe them thanks because they helped us when our country was less than a century old? I think the U.S. developed in ways that France will never understand. Owe, and maybe we owe them for that French and Indian war, where they were enemies, or maybe we owe them, for selling jets to Iraq after we embargoed them. Maybe we owe france for getting marched over quicker than Poland. I know, we love the french because of their fine wine and cheese, I hate to say this, but wisconsin has better of both, and you don't have to walk through raw sewage in the streets to get to it.

We don't owe the French shit, without us, they'd all be speaking German right now.

And without them, we would all be speaking English, with high taxes, from a parlamentary government. Hmmmm....That sounds like, nah

I can't believe it

[steak]

The only western country to screw up democracy, now screws with capitalism. surprise, surprise, surprise.

I want compensation

[eagl]

I want compensation from France in case they surrender to someone and we have to bail them out. Again. How about repaying us for WWII before coming to us for money?

Re:We're #2!

[Eunuchswear]

Oh no, you killed the jews you Nazi bastard!

French standard policy.

[CycoChuck]

If the French have the same policy in court that they do in international affairs, they'll back down and surrender when Apple stands up to them. After all, the first words a French child is taught is "I surrender."