Leander Kahney writes in Wired about recent efforts in France to force Apple to open iTunes in a piece unexpectedly titled “How France Is Saving Civilization”. I’ve often wondered how the French come by their independent spirit and determination to do things their way, but after watching them motorcycling across the Sahara, or sailing solo through the Great Southern Ocean, or trekking deep into Antarctica to film penguins – one has to admit that they come by it honestly.
And so these recent developments on the copyright file in France are justifiably attracting considerable interest. Wired’s warnings are perhaps prescient – I’ve commented before on Apple’s effectiveness in deploying itself from top to bottom in the music vertical. But in any event it is fascinating to see the tide turned back on DRM and other means used to restrict user choice.
Two other developments of note. First, Michael notes that the EU is now expanding a planned copyright review to a full review of the EU Copyright Directive itself, which will include a review of TPM’s and difficulties that arise for right holders, commercial users, consumers, scientific and academic users and libraries.
Second, open firmware for music players, including the iPod, has been released into the wild.