Parts of French ‘iPod Law’ Struck Down

The French Constitutional Council has declared major aspects of the so-called iPod law unconstitutional, undermining some controversial aspects of the legislation.

“ Apple’s lawyers might want to drink a glass of French Champagne today, but not a whole bottle,” said Dominique Ménard, a partner at the Lovells law firm and a specialist in intellectual property. “The Constitutional Council has highlighted fundamental protections for intellectual property in such a way as to put iTunes a little further from risk of the French law.”

Released late Thursday, the council’s 12-page legal finding made frequent reference to the 1789 Declaration on Human Rights and concluded that the iPod law violated the constitutional protections of property.

In particular, the council eliminated reduced fines for file sharing and said companies could not be forced, without compensation, to make music sold online compatible with any music device.

iPod and Levis

We've seen iPod belts, iPod jackets, even iPod ties, and if fashion-guru Reuters is to be believed, this could be just the beginning of an onslaught of new gadget-based (and by gadget, we mean iPod) clothing. The hottest iPod accessory right now is the Nike+iPod shoe and sensor combo and the big thing this fall could well be the upcoming iPod Levis or (yet another) iPod jacket by Columbia Sportswear. Before you know it, going out in public without an iPod concealed on your person (and we don't just mean in a pocket! How 2004!) may be the ultimate fashion faux pas.

NPD Group analyst Marshal Cohen expects wearable tech to become a billion dollar business within the next three years, as companies scramble to find the right combination of product features and price point to set an iPod shirt apart from just a regular shirt. Kenpo, Inc., a company that makes iPod jackets with controls on the sleeve, found their US$275 price point too steep for consumers. At US$99 to $199, the jacket generated $2.5 million in sales in a year's time.

iPod and Levis

We've seen iPod belts, iPod jackets, even iPod ties, and if fashion-guru Reuters is to be believed, this could be just the beginning of an onslaught of new gadget-based (and by gadget, we mean iPod) clothing. The hottest iPod accessory right now is the Nike+iPod shoe and sensor combo and the big thing this fall could well be the upcoming iPod Levis or (yet another) iPod jacket by Columbia Sportswear. Before you know it, going out in public without an iPod concealed on your person (and we don't just mean in a pocket! How 2004!) may be the ultimate fashion faux pas.

NPD Group analyst Marshal Cohen expects wearable tech to become a billion dollar business within the next three years, as companies scramble to find the right combination of product features and price point to set an iPod shirt apart from just a regular shirt. Kenpo, Inc., a company that makes iPod jackets with controls on the sleeve, found their US$275 price point too steep for consumers. At US$99 to $199, the jacket generated $2.5 million in sales in a year's time.

Apple signals iPod phone in works; 2007 debut seen

Apple Computer Inc., known for its secrecy about new products, gave the strongest signal yet it's working on an iPod phone that analysts said could be released early next year.

``We don't think that the phones that are available today make the best music players -- we think the iPod is,'' Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said on a conference call yesterday. ``But over time that is likely to change and we're not sitting around doing nothing.''

Oppenheimer's comments fueled anticipation that Apple will add a mobile phone to its iPod line. Apple, which has released at least two new models a year to spur sales, last updated the player in October. Growth in IPod shipments has slowed in the past two quarters and analysts anticipate new video and music players in coming months.

``The biggest part of last night's call was the iPhone,'' said Piper Jaffray Co. analyst Gene Munster, based in Minneapolis. ``It was the closest we could get to the announcement of a new product from Apple.''

An iPod phone may be released in the first half of 2007, said Munster. Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Richard Farmer pegged the release in the first quarter.

iPod forever? Not in its current form

Case in point: the big goof not to embrace interoperability from the very start. All the public-relations palaver in the world can't disguise what everyone who uses computers and software already knows--erecting unnecessary technology barriers has benefited only a handful of companies. As the tech business closes in on the 25th anniversary of the original PC from IBM in August, I find it incredible that the industry is still wrestling with this anachronism.

But the tech business is still good for the occasional surprise, such as when Microsoft and Yahoo made good on a pledge to make their instant-messaging services talk to each other. It took long enough, and the launch of a beta test of the system should not be equated with a finished product. Still, it is a harbinger of a different computing universe, where about 350 million Microsoft and Yahoo users will be able to message each other, adding buddies from either service to their contacts lists.