News
Report: French DRM law gutted
The French interoperability bill that would have forced Apple to open its FairPlay copy-protection technology used by the iPod and iTunes Music Store appears to have been gutted in committee. According to reports, most of the original provisions, which Apple said would result in “state-sponsored piracy,” have now been removed or rewritten. Ars Technica reports: “Previously, ‘information needed for interoperability’ covered ‘technical documentation and programming interfaces needed to obtain a copy in an open standard of the copyrighted work, along with its legal information.’ Now this has been changed to ‘technical documentation and programming interfaces needed to obtain a protected copy of a copyrighted work.’ But a ‘protected’ version of the work can’t be played back in a different player, which means interoperability won’t be attained with this clause.”
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“Bad example. In 20 years people will still enjoy playing Super Mario Brothers. Will an orginal NES still be around? The new Nintendo system will have a virtual console which will allow me to rebuy SMB in digital format but only for the new Nintendo console. Why can’t I play that file on my PSP or Xbox?”
Not exactly. But I’ll admit that it wasn’t a “perfect” example. What I was trying to get at is that most people just want the latest and greatest games. Music is timeless.
The patents expired on the NES and it is now legal to buy/build an NES clone to play your games. With music, circumventing DRM is illegal so you won’t be able to legally build a replacement player when your iPod is obsolete.
Besides, games have always been written to be hardware-specific. Music never was in the past and shouldn’t be today or in the future.
Posted by Genghis on May 3, 2006 at 4:23 PM (PDT)
22
The difference with music is simple: it’s sound waves encoded. While it’s certainly been tied down to different formats, it’s NEVER been as hogtied as it is now to specific manufacturers as it is in this DRM universe. Console software is always tied to their hardware because of the excellent point that Genghis made in his post. People have to write these programs, and programs are always subject to the quirks and whims of the hardware it’s supposed to be used on. Music, and video to a lesser degree, certainly shouldn’t be that way, especially since it never was before the advent of DRM.
As for whether or not its BS that iPod buyers are happy campers with their locked in devices and purchased music files, do most really CARE if they’re locked in? Probably not…until they see a non-Apple device that really intrigues them and realize that it’s just not going to happen, at least without re-acquiring all those songs they’ve already purchased once before. Is it any different than the switch from vinyl to CD? In the big scheme probably not, but here with digital formats we have the OPPORTUNITY to rectify this. For those who can’t or apparently refuse to SEE that…well, it’s your money.
For the rest of us…just like what happens far too often on our side of the pond with our Washington Bullets, France’s lawmakers wimped out to the desires of Big Business.
Posted by flatline response on May 4, 2006 at 7:31 AM (PDT)
23
Rip DRMed 128k ACC to CD and re-rip to whatever format you desire…ever actually tried that?
From my results, it ain’t pretty (to MY ears).
Posted by flatline response on May 4, 2006 at 7:34 AM (PDT)
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