I don’t own an iPod, and I’m not likely to anytime soon*. The primary reason for that is that the iPod is inextricably linked to iTunes in my mind, and I don’t care for iTunes’ proprietary format.

It doesn’t really matter much to me, because on the rare occasions that I buy music, I’m content enough with buying a whole CD. Otherwise, I’ll stick with my satellite radio. Still, as far as the principle of the matter goes, if I buy music, I want to be able to switch it to whatever format I like, and move it to whatever device I’m choosing to use at the moment.

With that in mind, you might think that I’d support the proposed French law that would require Apple to make music purchased from iTunes work anywhere:

Apple Computer Inc. said on Tuesday a proposed French law that would force Apple to make sure that songs bought on its iTunes music store can work on any portable player would result in “state-sponsored piracy.”

“The French implementation of the EU Copyright Directive will result in state-sponsored piracy,” said Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris. “If this happens, legal music sales will plummet just when legitimate alternatives to piracy are winning over customers.”

The National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, passed the law on Tuesday, which French officials said is aimed at preventing any one company from building a grip on the digital online music retail market.

At first, I really liked the idea behind this law, but the more I thought about it, the less appealing it seemed. Don’t get me wrong. As I said above, I wholeheartedly believe that Apple should do away with the proprietary format thing and sell music that I’m free to copy to other devices. They don’t do that, so I won’t use iTunes, even if I should decide to buy music online. Apple’s argument that the law promotes piracy is silly, I think, in that pirates can (and will) copy and share the music regardless; it’s a little less convenient this way, but that’s hardly an insurmountable problem. On the other hand, it’s no less silly of the French government to think that forcing a company to give its customers better service will somehow decrease the usage of that service in favor of the competition.

“I really liked Apple’s iTunes service when they sold me music that I could only listen to on their approved devices or by jumping through hoops to make it usable on other devices,” says the French government’s concept of a user, “but now that I can easily use the music I buy from them on any device I own, I think I’ll go to their competition, instead.” Honestly, I can’t imagine what they’re thinking, but that’s true of a whole lot of things done in France (and in the EU in general, actually), so that’s not why I don’t like the law, either.

So, why don’t I like this law? Because it’s the Nanny state at its worst. Apple has the right to sell a crippled product if they want, and if idiots customers want to purchase that product, well, that’s their business. If I came up with a way to make, for example, cigars that could only be lit using a special kind of lighter, that’s my business, and consumers who buy my cigars can’t go whining to the French government that I should make them compatible with other lighters. Well, they can, but if they do, I’ll (quite rightly) deride them for being whiny crybabies (or for being French, which is pretty much the same thing).