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Apple Sued in France for iPod Music Royalties
alex_guy_CA writes "A musicians rights group in France is suing Apple Computer for back royalties due from iPod sales. It seems in France, all CDs, hard drives, and the like owe musicians money in case any of it is used for piracy. Only Apple isn't paying up." I want compensation from sales of Microsoft Windows just in case it is used for spreading viruses.
Excellent. So we've just settled a lot of debates like gay marriage, the Patriot Act, DMCA, etc, etc.
After all, the law is the law.
Whatever is the current law is the current law and has to be followed. However, the law is always subject to change...
"we Americans have been laughing at the French since looooooong before 9/11."
We have been laughing at the French since 1918, when we landed in their country, walked across it, and saw a war that had dragged on for years end within months of our entry into it.
We laughed at the French when we told them (and the rest of Europe) to stuff it and didn't join the League of nations.
We laughed at the French in the '20s and '30s, as the Germans rearmed and the French disarmed. We laughed when the League of Nations censured the Germans for violating the treaty of Versailles but took no action to enforce it.
We laughed at the French in 1939 when they failed to live up to their treaty obligations when Poland was invaded. We laughed when they said the Poles lost because of their stupidity and that a REAL fighting force couldn't be beaten so easily. We laughed when the Germans invaded France (again) through the low countries (again) and France evacuated Paris (again). We laughed when they rolled over and let the Germans occupy them. We laughed when we had to sink their warships to prevent their use against us.
We quit laughing when the France's utter failure to prevent the spread of Nazi Germany put Britain on the verge of invasion. Rather than rolling over, the Brits fought the Nazis to a standstill.
We were distracted temporarily by a war in the Pacific with Japan and in African territories near Fascist Italy. Since France had rolled over, we had no beachhead in France; we'd have to make our own. It took several years.
And then we laughed at the French again as we invaded their country and leveled their towns and kissed their wives and daughters. We laughed as, for the second time in 25 years, we defeated France's enemies less than a year after entering France. Having learned our lesson, we have occupied France's enemies ever since.
In a few decades, when the US will have been long gone from Germany, I expect to laugh myself sick at the news that the Germans have overrun Holland and Belgium and are moving to occupy Paris. With any luck, we'll be driving in from Normandy again, racing the Germans for the prize of getting there first.
"They're rude to our tourists"
(1) Parisians are rude to EVERYONE. To most Americans, there is nothing in France except Paris.
(2) Try speaking sometimes besides English when you're not in an English speaking country?
(3) Tourists aren't people, anyway.
"they maybe bathe once a year"
Much more often than you.
"(since to them, French is an obviosly superior language)"
Obviously, you don't care so much for your own language if you can't spell.
"then they call US arrogant?"
I have seen five times more ridiculous bullshit concerning the French in this thread than the amount of anti-American sentiment I experienced during five months in France.
Please keep your head in your ass so you will suffocate sooner.