HiFi Blog: digital audio goodness

While in the US people who download music illegally are prosecuted in droves, in France they’re taking a more sensible and serious look at things. The author’s rights law, which is to be voted by the National Assembly today, basically says two things:

1. if you’re caught downloading copyrighted music illegaly you’re paying a harmless 38€ fine—if you share your loot with others, the fine goes up to a still harmless 150€.


2. the DRM with which tracks from the online music stores are bundled should work seamlessly with all music players. That is to say, they want the tracks from Yahoo! Music Unlimited (bundled with Microsoft’s WindowsMedia DRM) to play on an iPod, and the tracks from the iTunes Music Store (locked with the much talked-about FairPlay) to play on the bazillion PlaysForSure devices out there.

RE: point #2—I’m stating the obvious here, so the following words needn’t necessarily be marked but anyway: there’s no chance on earth that Apple’s going to open FairPlay. None. iPods may be the money-makers for now for the Cupertino-based company, but tracks you buy from the iTMS are the trojan horse, a means of locking you quietly to the iPod family. 5 years from now you’ll have a considerable number of iTMS tracks in your music library—by keeping FairPlay closed, you’re forced to stay with an iPod in order to enjoy ‘em. Those innocent-looking $.99 purchases are going to eventually drive the $199/299/399 ones.

[Hilarious poster courtesy of Communist Remixes For The People.]