French Still Chippy About Apple DRM

France's Trade Minister Christine Lagarde visited technology executives in Silicon Valley, and brought plenty of European attitude along on the trip. The last time Lagarde was in the US, she visited Washington and touted the virtues of investing American dollars in the country. As the Washington Times And Europeans think Americans are smug, ho ho. Now the Lagarde road show, which really ought to stop by report posted at Yahoo News. But if Steve Jobs had suddenly appeared in all his black turtlenecked glory, Lagarde would have had something to say to him: "Any time a company restricts competition in a market, it gets the attention of regulating agencies. We have to play by the rules of the game," she said. Those "restrictions" refer to the DRM Apple uses with music it sells through iTunes. French legislation may compel Apple to open its Fairplay DRM to other music sellers and MP3 player manufacturers in France. Ideally, that would permit people greater choice in how and where they get their music. But how does Lagarde feel about suggestions that maybe France should fix its exceedingly outdated political and labor policies before coming to Silicon Valley to beg for investment? Evidently those aren't an issue to her: "I don't want the crap," Lagarde said. "It annoys me when France is portrayed as an awkward, backward country. It is not." Apple does not appear likely to open Fairplay up at any point in the future, and could even withdraw from the French market. Lagarde thinks Apple couldn't possibly ignore the French youth market, with lots of iPod owners. She may be in for a shock if Apple decides it really has no interest in cannibalizing its profitable hardware business just to placate France. But that's just the sort of thing a smug American would do anyway, right? Tag: Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") | Yahoo! My Web | PreFound.com Bookmark Murdok - David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.