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Re: How France Is Saving Civilization
By Leander Kahney
From: Jim Hartneady
Since I can play the songs I purchase from iTunes Music Store on a CD, or move it to any other MP3 player, I have a tough time following your logic.
Any song can be converted to an MP3. Once it is an MP3 I can move it into an iPod or any of those other players.
Apple didn't win the market for having the best player (well, maybe a little) or the most songs (although they do); they won the market for being seamlessly integrated.
If the French government goes through with its course and Apple stays in France we can watch for the blame game. When a song from a Windows source doesn't play in iTunes or in the iPod who is at fault? Right now it works. Windows and Mac users can play the music on their computers and iPods. What will the future bring?
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Re: How France Is Saving Civilization
By Leander Kahney
From: Mark Reschke
This bill is an EU socialistic joke. Now we get government more tied into the market-place. Just look at the EU and its lack of people willing to work (especially in France), and the socialistic mentality "free for everyone."
Technically, Apple allows MP3 and other formats onto the iPod. Their own music has DRM which can be easily stripped by ripping to a CD and then having whatever you want to do with it done.
If we go after Apple, let us go after car manufacturers who only allow gas to run their engines -- not ethanol or diesel at the same time. Let's go after Microsoft for locking in programs written for their OS to not run on Linux. Let us make sure any smart proprietary technology be opened up to all, in order to truly stifle innovation and kill businesses.
Lastly, let us not forget (because evidently you have) that people actually have choices. Wow, what a concept. Someone can actually choose to buy something other than an iPod. And even if they do purchase an iPod, they can buy music CDs (you know the CDs that contain quality sounding music) and put them into iTunes or whatever SW they wish, and put those songs on an iPod, Creative Zen, you name it.
Boil it down, this is nothing more than a pathetic socialistic move, stifling business creativity.
Time for Apple to move music servers off-shore (the gambling route) and get out of this gov-freak control.
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Re: How France Is Saving Civilization
By Leander Kahney
From: Larry Rosenthal
The major problem with your premise is that, as you say, it is very early days in the digital media revolution, and Apple's position is far from monopolistic, yet the French legislation will deny Apple both profits and market position in anticipation of the monopoly they might become.
If a monopoly is unfair in the long run, so is restraint of trade unjust in the short term, and giving Apple's competitors a free ride is just that. This is legislation against an anticipated crime -- not unlike incarcerating a child for the criminal adult he might possibly become.
I fervently hope Apple pulls out of France. This law would be unconstitutional in this country. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
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Re: How France Is Saving Civilization
By Leander Kahney
From: anonymous
"The company created the market for legal music downloads, why shouldn't it dominate it? Why should the French government help competitors like Microsoft or Sony to get a foothold in a market they have proven incapable of competing in? And why should Apple be subject to antimonopoly legislation when rivals like Microsoft traditionally have not? To free marketers, it's government meddling at its worst."
This line of reasoning is a disgrace. Capitalism works through competition. You are airing questions that border on madness. Don't do it again.
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Re: How France Is Saving Civilization
By Leander Kahney
From: Pierre Andrews
This story is going all around the "not-french" blogosphere; I even saw it on TV yesterday here in the UK. And, indeed, it is a good thing to protect the user's rights. "Vive la France," as you say.
However, if you listen to the French blogosphere, you will hear a different sound. This law has been voted as is after a lot of delays and its initial version was different. That's because French web lovers and consumer-rights activists fought hard to have a correct law (see http://www.eucd.info for one of the main actors in the battle).
Most of the (French) deputies do not understand the problem deeply. Some parts of the law were revised in the right direction (like the one you are writing about). However, some other parts are more dangerous.
(The law balances) giving rights to the users by setting fines for those who are pirating. Someone stealing copyrighted content online will be fined 38 euros and someone who creates software for exchanging copyrighted content illegally will face a fine of 300,000 euros and three years of prison.
This is where the law is dangerous (and the president of Mozilla Europe shows his concern on this issue on his blog: http://www.standblog.org). The law says you can be condemned for "editing and willingly putting up -- in any form -- a system clearly designed for the publication of a non-authorized public of protected work."
The problem is that this definition applies to almost any software developed for the web. A web browser is willingly developed to exchange content (and could clearly be used to distribute copyrighted content). E-mail software, ftp software, etc. -- all fall under that definition.
The danger, then, is to see a bunch of court actions attacking software developers who have created content-exchange software without bad intentions. Will open source developers be ready to take the risk of such condemnation?
Anywhere in the world, laws are rarely passed giving everything to one side. It is always a consensus, although sometimes it is not clear if the consensus is really balanced.
