The French (who seem quite confused in general over the whole issue of digital rights management, illegal file sharing, copyright and so forth) are currently expected to vote on a bill this week that would allow consumers to legally convert music files from one format to another. This would have the effect of breaking some digital rights management applications.

The bill would force Apple Computer to let consumers download music from its iTunes store onto any player they wanted--not just Apple's own iPods.

While the idea is to open up the market, some industry watchers think it could have the opposite effect. Rather than open up, music providers--including Apple--would simply close up shop in France.