As embarrassing as George Bush

I don’t have anything in particular against the French people, but making a move like this seems as though it would be as embarrassing to them as George Bush is (and should be) to the American people. — Blog post, SilliconValley.com

The issue at hand is not grand legislation that would elect some viciously incompetent leader. No, far more pressing: This is the fight to keep music downloads legal. The French online copyright bill, already approved by the Assembly and now on its way to the French Senate, would blow Apple’s iTunes licensing system wide-open.

“If this happens,” Apple responded in a statement, “legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers. iPod sales will likely increase as users freely load their iPods with ‘interoperable’ music which cannot be adequately protected. Free movies for iPods should not be far behind in what will rapidly become a state-sponsored culture of piracy.”

Fortunately for Apple pulling out of France would have a negligible impact on sales, according to John Paczkowski’s article on SiliconValley.com. The direct impact is probably about two percent of overall iTunes sales, though the real impact — given the likelihood of a black market or other workarounds, is probably smaller. While some small portion of online music sales may suffer, whether this would negatively impact sales of the iPod as a portable device is less likely.