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French Lawmakers Approve 'iTunes Law'
An anonymous reader writes "Lawmakers in the French government have passed a controversial iTunes law, which has the stated intention of forcing Apple to allow purchased music to be universally useable." From the article: "In a statement issued after lawmakers hashed out the final compromise text last week, Apple said it hoped the market would be left to decide 'which music players and online music stores are offered to consumers.' The final compromise asserts that companies should share the required technical data with any rival that wants to offer compatible music players and online stores, but it toned down many of the tougher measures backed by lower-house lawmakers early on."
This article presents the DADVSI law as if it would be good for free software. It isn't.
With the law as it is passed, there is a very real risk that anyone in France who distributes software such as libdvdcss could face up to three years in prison.
Don't be distracted by the headlines about Apple. This law could be a major blow to legal playback of DVD and other protected digital media using free software.
The problem isn't that the iPod is incompatible with other music stores, but that the iTunes music store is incompatible with non-Apple players.
It ain't that easy.
Business is supposed to work on the base that different manufacturers create different products. The customer, on the other hand, is the one to pick which product fits his needs best.
If the manufacturer forces him to use product A only with product B, the customer cannot make this decision. If he is forced to use product A if he wants to use product B, this violates the laws of free trade.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The consumer has the decision, it was thier decision to use A knoing they HAD to use Product B, its not like Apple doesnt make it clear you have to use a iPod to play the music off your computer.
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Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
For that matter, I think many people overlook another "twist" on burning music to CD. Products like Nero allow a virtual disc to be created. So you don't even have to use up any physical CD media to accomplish this type of conversion.
Honestly, I think DRM on digital music is going to prove to be utterly pointless - since computers allow making perfect digital copies of the original work, as long as it can be played on the system at all. It only serves to add an extra "speed bump" in the way of making copies of the songs you download.
Right now, for example, any Windows user can sign up for one of these unlimited music download services like Yahoo Music, Virgin Digital, or Rhapsody, and with a $19 copy of "muvaudio", batch process everything they download into DRM-free MP3s of any bitrate they desire. It uses "virtual audio patch cable" device drivers to make lossless digital copies of the music while it plays in Media Player, even keeping any sounds generated by other applications separate from what's recording, so you can still use the PC while it works.
Apple Mac users can do something pretty similar with "Audio Hijaack Pro" (although maybe not quite as automated and "fancy" with handling queued up playlists of songs).
Chevy is required to tell how the system works - at least how to interface to it - so that it can be maintained. In fact, they even have to make their OBD-II powertrain codes available "for a reasonable fee".
On top of that, all popular automotive engines eventually become available as "crate motors" - it's a complete, never-installed engine in a crate. You buy the appropriate service manual, and you get complete documentation on how to interface to it. (Some of them are really old, and simple; for them, if you know what you're doing, you don't even need a manual. Like the 426 chrysler hemi, which was [fairly] recently made available... the drag race guys had bought them all up and converted them to alcohol and there were none left to speak of.
Please, stay away from the comparisons to the automotive world. You're just as bad at it as damned near everyone else. If you want to get engine specs, documentation, and the bare engine itself, you can, and there's no DRM stopping you from using it in any vehicle you like, either.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Just read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DADVSI
Most news sources just tell rubbish about this law.
This so-called "iTunes law" began as a law meant to criminalize peer-to-peer file sharing as well as any circumvention of DRMs.
The so-called "iTunes" clauses were introduced as amendments, proposed by free software activists who wanted to save the legal possibility of making free software players. Apple was a side casualty.
And read the report from EUCD.info: French Parliament approves the worst copyright law in Europe .
The law that was voted today (link is to report where the law itself is in the second half) no longer has the strong interoperability provisions that in particular protected free software-based implementation of interoperability. It would be much more relevant to comment on the infamous Vivendi Universal amendment that is included in the voted text. The corresponding provisions create criminal sanctions (3 years of jail and 300000 euros = 375000 US$) for software writers, distributers and importers for software that is "manifestly destinated" to the unauthorised sharing of copyrighted works. The exclusion of general collaborative work or file exchange software from these sanctions has been deleted in the final text. They also make possible for right holders to ask for judicial injonctions to software publishers and service providers to implement DRMs in software that is "manifestly used" even for at non-commercial scale for sharing works without authorisation. I don't know if Apple will keep screaming about the law, but there is much more to cry about for software freedom, intellectual freedoms and free culture.
An interesting point, but i would like to point out that you cannot use a virtual drive and Itunes together- meaning you cannot burn music to a virtual cd. All things considered the virtual audio patch cable is something a lot of people have strived to create (sounds like the perfect solution to getting around DRM).
Except that - if the Europe/US stores are anything to go by - you can only buy from the store in your country. Presumably because that's the way Apple have negotiated the music rights.
Should be interesting to see what Apple do here. I strongly suspect that people are right and they will just shut the store, rather than have to open specs.