French protest proposed DRM law

If there's one thing the French like (other than Jerry Lewis and Woody Allen, that is), it's a good protest. So, it should come as no surprise that hundreds of activists took to the streets this weekend to protest the country's proposed DRM law. The new law would levy fines for file sharing, and make it easier for companies to impose DRM on copyrighted files. The latest draft of the law also favors large corporations and drops key provisions from an earlier version that could have required companies like Apple Computer to open up their DRM to competitors. The French Senate is debating the draft law this week.

[Brad @ May 8th 2006 1:47PM]

O man.. I hate DRM when is there going to be something so I can un-DRM my itunes files from itunes 6?

O yeah first post

[oshean @ May 8th 2006 1:57PM]

O man.. you should of thought about DRM before buying from the iTunes Data Store.

O yeah who cares

[Andir @ May 8th 2006 1:58PM]

It looks like a gay-pride march...

[omama @ May 8th 2006 2:01PM]

O man.. I think you mean "you should have thought".

O yeah you're a GED graduate.

[Perrey Z. @ May 8th 2006 2:06PM]

OH my goodness... you know this is going to be a very nasty protest when the people involved start dressing up weird with staple Monopoly money alongside the word "Apple" as accessories. The French are very passionate to a good bloddy confrontation with authorities to make a point for unfairness things.

[Andrew @ May 8th 2006 2:13PM]

i don't use itunes so i'm not sure about this, but can't you burn the songs you download to a cd and then just rip the songs off the cd so they don't have drm on them?

[Adam Daniel @ May 8th 2006 2:23PM]

My questions to no one in particular: Would Apple produce/improve iTunes if there were no iTunes Music Store? Would there be an iTunes Music Store if there were no DRM?

[portorikan @ May 8th 2006 2:42PM]

"7. My questions to no one in particular: Would Apple produce/improve iTunes if there were no iTunes Music Store? Would there be an iTunes Music Store if there were no DRM?"


I was a happy user of itunes before an itunes music store existed. For me, it's more of a music management program with a bonus store as a feature.

[Silver @ May 8th 2006 3:23PM]

"can't you burn the songs you download to a cd and then just rip the songs off the cd so they don't have drm on them?"

Yes.

"Would Apple produce/improve iTunes if there were no iTunes Music Store?"

Hmmm...

"Would there be an iTunes Music Store if there were no DRM?"

Not a chance.

[Brad @ May 8th 2006 4:05PM]

Whats the point of iTunes without iTMS? iTunes, regardless of what you may have been brainwashed to think, is not a good music organization program. WMP and RP are both by far better products in this realm. WMP11 is going to toss iTunes further back into last century.

[nein @ May 8th 2006 4:41PM]

seems like #10 was the one brainwashed... wmp? are you kidding me?

i'd be happier with manually entering song titles into a curses based cli app than dealing with such buggy, ugly, bloated crap.

[Saxon @ May 8th 2006 4:46PM]

"WMP and RP are both by far better products in this realm."

Erm... who's brainwashed?

[Big Ed @ May 8th 2006 5:19PM]

We shouldn't take any chances with this riot. Off with their heads!

[Brennan @ May 8th 2006 5:33PM]

socialism at its finest...btw "it's a good protest"?

do you mean "is a good protest?"

[Matthew @ May 8th 2006 6:10PM]

WMP is worthless once my library breached 5000+ songs(now pushing 16,000) it took up to 15 minutes to fully open and even longer to update if I DL'd songs. iTunes was the first and so far the only one that can handle the shear size.

[spil @ May 8th 2006 7:28PM]

O man.. portorikan is right, i never use iTMS, but i do use it for stickin music up my ear hole. And any way, who cares what theyre doing, theyre like on the other side of the world. But theyre cool for stickin it to stevie

[Croso @ May 8th 2006 8:20PM]

#15 - I have 26,000 some songs in my WMP10 (and before that WMP9) database and it only takes 10 seconds to load the library... and then it's really fast.

Itunes crashed for me back when it first came out and I tried it.. at 20,000...

either way WMP + MCE > iTunes + FrontRow.

[charlie @ May 8th 2006 9:12PM]

You are all forgetting the most important part of the article. These are the FRENCH who are protesting. SO WHAT!!!!! These are the same people who protest EVERYTHING including wanting mayonnaise for their french fries at McDonalds.

[Travis @ May 8th 2006 9:29PM]

So they are protesting... having to legally buy thier music?


OMG!!!!!

[Reg @ May 9th 2006 12:34AM]

@Andrew > "but can't you burn the songs you download to a cd and then just rip the songs off the cd so they don't have drm on them?"

Yes, you can. Along with JHymn and audio hijack software, this is another common method to play the tracks on something other than a computer or iPod.

In fact, if you use a CD-RW, you don't have to waste a disc doing it.

[JonesH @ May 9th 2006 2:44AM]

Sure you can burn the song to a CD and rip it again, there's only the little issue of cascade coding your files again. You'll first have the original WAV/AIFF, then Apple's AAC encoding, followed by PCM endoding on the CD and then encoding it to AAC/MP3 or whatever. That's not a good thing at all, you get even worse quality than when you started out with the AAC.

[trusk @ May 9th 2006 3:21AM]

you should better be protesting, too (or at least be sending ipods to your senators). with the RIAA suing anybody and his brother (or grandmother, whatever) and these nifty tcpa chips, listening to music will be so much fun again.

[Dave H @ May 9th 2006 8:03AM]

I may get flamed for this, but why is considered OK in the USA to be racist to the French? Lots of people consider it OK in the UK (where I am) too. It's really strange because everyone knows it's not OK to be racist to e.g. South Africans, Indians or Japanese.

[charlie @ May 9th 2006 8:21AM]

French is not a race. It is possible to be black, brown or white and still be "french"

Being French is an arrogant, boorish, snobby state of mind! It also means believing that your dinky little country is still relevant. THAT is the essence of "frenchness"

[Intrepid @ May 9th 2006 8:39AM]

The French may be different, but they make good points and know how to stick it to the man. DRM sucks crap in it's current state and needs new laws that aren't goverened by the Apple NAZI group.

[Kim Laughton @ May 9th 2006 9:27AM]

Dave H, to be fair, more people around the world hate America than France?

[Storm @ May 9th 2006 10:00PM]

#25 I couldnt agree with you more, the last thing we need is an "eeeevil Steve Jobs" dictating our lives with piano white ipods. once again apple is trying to brainwash us... I can just see it now, an old lady buying a new computer from her local dick smiths, "what does it have in it?" "oh it has the latest in _compatibility_ hardware, a DRM Protection Chip" "whats that?" "its a chip in the computer that doesnt let you do ANYTHING!!"
grrrr