Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Every Monday, Bryan Glanzberg contributes The Water Cooler, a column that bridges the gap between technology and business.

So just when you thought the iPod was the best thing since sliced bread…those French had to come back and screw things up.  Apple might be considering to pull the iPod from France because of legislation that might force them to open up the iPod to support other music download stores rather than just iTunes. 

“France is the third-largest digital music market in Europe, after Britain and Germany, according to GfK, a market research company based in Nuremberg, Germany. Downloads in France last year totaled 20 million songs worth $23.3 million, while 4.7 million digital music players were sold, the company said.

As of Thursday, the copyright bill still had more than 400 amendments, many of them having to do with how devices interoperate. The most prominently affected device would be the iPod, but Sony’s Walkman digital music players operate on a similar principle. In both cases, purchased online music can be transferred to the hardware only from a site owned by the same company — the iTunes Music Store for iPods and Sony Connect for the Walkman. Sony declined to comment.

The development is especially rich in irony for Microsoft, a target of European antitrust action, which licenses its digital music format, called WMA, to any company willing to pay for it. Most non-Apple digital music players, like those produced by Samsung, Creative and Archos, allow WMA songs, while most online music merchants, like Rhapsody from RealNetworks, Music Now from America Online and Napster, sell songs in that format.” (New York Times)

We will keep you posted on any future developments!

Read [New York Times: DealBook]