Two recent news stories highlight the development of French internet policy. France is traditionally billed as the ‘safe haven’ of P2P users — portrayed as having a liberal, permissive copyright regime and consumer-friendly anti-circumvention laws.

The first story certainly confirms this view. The French Parliament is considering legislation that would mandate Apple to open its iTunes music store to non-iPod portable music players, and permit users to transcode Apple music files into cross-compatible formats:

Under a draft law expected to be voted in parliament on Thursday, consumers would be able to legally use software that converts digital content into any format.

It would no longer be illegal to crack digital rights management — the codes that protect music, films and other content — if it is to enable to the conversion from one format to another, said Christian Vanneste, Rapporteur, a senior parliamentarian who helps guide law in France.

‘It will force some proprietary systems to be opened up … You have to be able to download content and play it on any device,’ Vanneste told Reuters in a telephone interview on Monday.

Naturally, Apple played coy, threatening to close its music store to French users for fear that the unrestricted files would be disseminated into other jurisdictions. (On the other hand, the proposal may demonstrate to Apple just how much more popular its store would be if it sold unencumbered technology.)

The second story, however, is not of the traditional kind, though certainly a welcome counter-balance:

Internet copyright pirates will face prison and large fines after French MPs defied left-wing opposition in pushing through a bill Thursday to prevent illegal downloading of music and films.

The controversial bill to stamp out illegal downloads in line with a 2001 European Union directive has highlighted deep divisions in the country over how to balance consumer rights and copyright in the Internet age.

Essentially, people who distribute ‘cracks’ (programs enabling users to circumvent copy-protection mechanisms on music and video game discs) will face up to six months’ imprisonment and fines of up to € 30 000. Users of a crack for this purpose will be fined € 750.