Last week we noted that the unlocked iPhones being sold in France might not actually be usable outside that country. Orange, the iPhone reseller in France, says non, it is selling fully unlocked iPhones which will work with any SIM card, in any country. Liberté, égalité, we overpay! [The Register]

When the iPhone went on sale in France in November, French law required Orange, the local iPhone retailer, to sell a "carrier-independent" phone. This "unlocked" phone is priced at €749 instead of the standard €399. iPhone Atlas is reporting that the unlocked phones aren't fully unlocked, but are instead country-locked to French carriers only. I'm not a French lawyer, but this would seem to comply with the "carrier-independent" requirement in a wonderfully perverse and legalistic way, souring the plans of many resellers who wanted to bring back loads of unlocked phones from France. Can any of our French readers confirm this? Oh wait, I know a guy who's in France. I'll give him a call. (Photo by chefranden)

Those beautiful days of sipping tea along the Garonne whilst ordering books that will arrive in a week's time, free of charge, are over. The high court in Versailles has forbidden Amazon.com to offer free shipping after the French Bookseller's Union threw a fit of Gallic rage, claiming the Web retailer was offering an "illegal discount on books." Woe to free markets. Amazon has 10 days to end gratis shipping before the French court imposes a daily $1,462 fine. Jeff Bezos is also stuck giving a not-so-secret Santa of $146,158 to the booksellers.

Liberation is running a poll about who is the hottest male newscaster on Web3. Because nouns are gendered in French (which I speak fluently! Paw grand shows) the gays are mad because the poll is only for les lectrices (female readers.) Maybe they're also mad because none of these dudes are really good looking at all. Except the dude on the left who kind of looks like Pavement bassist Mark Ibold who is handsome. [Liberation]

German iPhone reseller T-Mobile began selling unlocked iPhones — phones that can be used on almost any network — for €999 ($1,477) because of a court order. Orange, the iPhone reseller in France, was required to sell a "carrier independent" phone from the beginning because of French law. The iPhone went on sale in France today with the unlocked version selling for €749 vs €399 for the standard contract-limited phone. (Photo by mukluk)

French president Nicolas Sarkozy is endorsing a plan that would ban the provision of Internet access to file sharers caught pirating three times. The plan would use information from ISPs on "high-volume users" to find file sharers. Serial offenders would see their accounts suspended or terminated after their third strike. Music and film industries, naturally, are in favor of the plan. A consumer group in France labeled it "very harsh, potentially repressive, antieconomic and against the grain of the digital age." Harsh words. Well, it could be worse. At least they aren't blocking la Bible. (Photo by AP/Michel Euler)