The French interoperability bill that would have forced Apple to open its FairPlay copy-protection technology used by the iPod and iTunes Music Store appears to have been gutted in committee.
According to reports, most of the original provisions, which Apple said would result in “state-sponsored piracy,” have now been removed or rewritten.
Ars Technica reports: “Previously, ‘information needed for interoperability’ covered ‘technical documentation and programming interfaces needed to obtain a copy in an open standard of the copyrighted work, along with its legal information.’ Now this has been changed to ‘technical documentation and programming interfaces needed to obtain a protected copy of a copyrighted work.’ But a ‘protected’ version of the work can’t be played back in a different player, which means interoperability won’t be attained with this clause.”
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