French Week continues here at AtAT; on Monday we linked to a French article about a possible date for a Power Mac G5 speed-bump, and yesterday we pointed you towards another French piece about Apple's deadbeat status due to its refusal to pay almost two years' worth of royalties on French-sold iPods. Well, rather than break the streak, we're sticking with the royalties plotline today-- but even though our setting is once again the sweaty jungles and endless desert vistas of France, we figured we'd cut you a break on all the français lately and link to a followup article that was written natively in English. (Indeed, we've been informed that it's our patriotic duty as Lazy Americans™ to pretend that no other languages exist, and we really can't face another freakin' treason charge.)

So here goes: the Associated Press has a little more info on that whole iPod royalty commotion busting out down in France, and it sounds like Apple may well soon have yet another lawsuit on its hands. The Society of Music Creators, Composers, and Publishers (which has the oh-so-euphonic French acronym of "Sacem") estimates that Apple sold about 20,000 iPods on French soil last year alone, which, at a levy of €10 a pop, comes out to roughly $245,000 in American filthy lucre; add in all the iPods sold this year so far and the ones sold after July in 2002, factor in the levy's sliding scale (reportedly it's €20 on a 40 GB iPod), and we're probably talking about a third of a million smackers that Apple owes to French musicians. That's not exactly chicken feed, and as such, if Apple doesn't cough up soon, Sacem "will have no other option than to go immediately to court to make sure that the rights of artists, composers, and producers are respected."

Suddenly, Apple's motive in all this becomes startlingly clear: it's not that it doesn't have the cash, or doesn't want to spend the cash, or feels that the €10-per-iPod tariff is fundamentally flawed or unfair (e.g. the fee assumes that customers will use the iPod to pirate music and forces Apple to pay for that); it's that Steve is collecting lawsuits by recording artists as if they're baseball cards or something. Think about it for a second. Apple is already facing lawsuits by the Beatles and Eminem, who are (albeit in grossly different ways) a couple of the biggest acts to grace the last few decades of popular music. And now, by not paying these royalties, Steve is about to bolster his collection with a lawsuit basically filed by all French recording artists in one fell swoop. Say what you will about the man, but he's nothing if not efficient.

If we're right about this, then we can expect word of Sacem's legal action any day now-- and then all that remains is trying to figure out whom Steve will try to annoy next. Let's see, here... the Beatles, then Eminem, then France... Hey, how about Metallica? They like to sue a lot. Or is that not enough of a challenge?