France to the Rescue

While the ruling out of France that Apple must open iTunes continues to rumble, and some celebrate, you just have to wonder – how much is France worth, anyway? Will it even matter? Just what happens if Apple doesn’t comply? They aren’t allowed to offer a French version of the software, perhaps? No more iPods for their citizens maybe? I don’t know.

But it seems to me that the government – and by that, I mean any government, and not just the US – to decide that Apple isn’t playing fair isn’t likely to make a bit of difference, unless they can get a whole lot of other counties to follow suit.

I mean it isn’t like France is isolated or anything. How long can it take someone in France to get to, say, England, Italy or Spain, pick up an iPod, and get back? Or maybe they’ll hop on down to pick up some alternative player instead and Steve Jobs will miss out on a few stock options. Does it really matter so much?