Yesterday's vote by the French National Assembly to require companies to open up their digital music businesses to competitors is a thinly disguised attack on Apple's hugely successful iPod/iTunes franchise. It is a bad piece of legislation and should not be approved by the French Senate. If consumers want open standards, companies offering these standards will ultimately prevail in the market. To the extent that Apple's high market share raises monopoly issues, these should be dealt with by competition authorities, not national parliaments.

At the heart of the debate is the exclusive link between iTunes, Apple's online music store, and its iPod digital music player. Music bought on iTunes cannot be played on other music players and owners of iPods can only download copyright protected music from the iTunes website. The system is designed to lock in consumers who might otherwise shop around for music content or hardware. These consumers would probably prefer, all other things being equal, to be able to mix and match. But if Apple wants to run its business this way it is entitled to do so.