Ze French Strike Again!
In yet another veritable orgasm of poor prioritization, the French parliament has initiated a law that would force digital music vendors to unlock proprietary programming.
Now, I can understand the rationale behind this, but there are two things that strike me as particularly asinine here.
First, it seems obvious from news in the last few months that the French have bigger fish to fry than this. In just the last two weeks, they've had riots and protests over proposed changes to their employment laws. Last Autumn, they had weeks of riots that resulted in injuries, a few deaths, and damage to millions, possibly billions, of euros worth of property. Also, the French military is a complete and total joke, and in need of a major overhaul; if you don't believe me, read this or this. The French have much more important things to worry about than whether or not the songs that your neighborhood cheese and tobacco salesman downloads from Rhapsody or Napster can play on an iPod.
Second, part of the reason for high unemployment and an otherwise lackluster economy in France is exactly this: overregulation. Establishing regulations to prevent the use of antifreeze as an ingredient in wine is one thing; public safety should be the primary goal of any government, and that's why the French should be putting more money into military development and public safety. Instead, they're pulling a Gray Davis and regulating worthless nonsense. Politics junkies will remember that Governor Schwarzenegger was voted into office in California during a recall election, because former Governor Gray Davis was so hell bent on overregulating business that the California economy was collapsing from businesses leaving the state. MP3 players, computers, and digital music (and actually, music in general) is a luxury and a convenience, not a matter of public concern. This legislation is an absolute joke.
There are some great French folks out there, but they need to get their government squared away.
The French parliament has backed plans to give consumers more choice over music downloads from the internet.
MPs backed a draft law to force Apple, Sony and Microsoft to share their proprietary copy-protection systems by 296 to 193 votes.
The aim is to ensure that digital music can be played on any player, regardless of its format or source.
The bill will now go before France's upper house, the Senate, in the coming weeks for approval before becoming law.
Currently most online stores lock consumers into their own downloading systems and players, such as with Apple's iTunes and its iPod.
The French bill says that proprietary copy-protection technologies must not block interoperability between different systems.
Now, I can understand the rationale behind this, but there are two things that strike me as particularly asinine here.
First, it seems obvious from news in the last few months that the French have bigger fish to fry than this. In just the last two weeks, they've had riots and protests over proposed changes to their employment laws. Last Autumn, they had weeks of riots that resulted in injuries, a few deaths, and damage to millions, possibly billions, of euros worth of property. Also, the French military is a complete and total joke, and in need of a major overhaul; if you don't believe me, read this or this. The French have much more important things to worry about than whether or not the songs that your neighborhood cheese and tobacco salesman downloads from Rhapsody or Napster can play on an iPod.
Second, part of the reason for high unemployment and an otherwise lackluster economy in France is exactly this: overregulation. Establishing regulations to prevent the use of antifreeze as an ingredient in wine is one thing; public safety should be the primary goal of any government, and that's why the French should be putting more money into military development and public safety. Instead, they're pulling a Gray Davis and regulating worthless nonsense. Politics junkies will remember that Governor Schwarzenegger was voted into office in California during a recall election, because former Governor Gray Davis was so hell bent on overregulating business that the California economy was collapsing from businesses leaving the state. MP3 players, computers, and digital music (and actually, music in general) is a luxury and a convenience, not a matter of public concern. This legislation is an absolute joke.
There are some great French folks out there, but they need to get their government squared away.
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