Many American music lovers complain about this incompatibility, too, but haven't been able to get Congress behind them.įrench lawmakers say their bill is enlightened consumerism for cutting-edge technology, an effort to force Apple and other companies to freely compete, rather than relying on techno-secrets to crush the competition. The tiny device plays songs downloaded from Apple's online music store embedded with code that prevents them from being played on anything other than an iPod. Laypeople call it the iPod bill, after Apple's hugely successful digital music player. and other companies could have to reveal trade secrets of their software so that their songs can play on competitors' devices. Under the proposed law, Apple Computer Inc., Sony Corp., Dell Inc. Now comes France's National Assembly to the rescue, or so claim lawmakers who have crafted legislation to force compatibility between digital songs and the different machines that play them. ![]() The legal and technical issues of protecting music copyrights are so complex, Paitre said, that many music lovers "feel stuck in the middle" and eventually are forced into the business of trying to foil the protections on their own. ![]() My hard drive with all my music files crashed, and I can't transfer the songs from my handheld into a new computer? I can download digital songs from one company, but I can't play them on another company's machine? PARIS - All is not well in the French world of digital music, as Nicolas Paitre, a salesman at one of Paris's largest electronics stores, hears from customers every day.įiling into Surcouf, a glitzy French electronics chain where Paitre specializes in digital music gadgets, they have the same bewildered looks and exasperated queries:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |