Surprise, surprise! Macworld UK report…

The US government has taken Apple’s side, condemning France’s move to legislate for interoperable copy protection technologies.

Speaking on CNBC, US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said he needed to take a close look at France’s proposals, but warned: “Any time that something like this happens, any time that we believe intellectual property rights are being violated, we need to speak up and in this case, the company is taking the initiaitive.”

French lawmakers this week passed a bill which would force Apple, Microsoft and others to ensure that files purchased with one form of digital rights management (DRM) would work on computers and portable devices that employ another of the standards.

The move seems set to open up the industry, allowing songs purchased from Napster to play on an iPod, or tracks acquired from iTunes to play on a Windows Media-backed player.

Apple has condemned the move as “state-sponsored piracy”.

Ho, ho! See what Cory Doctorow has to say about that.