Nickname: pegase

Review: Sure I'll never buy a product that I'll have to play on a special device. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were many different non-compatible devices producers to play music, and none have survived. Do you remember the start of PC Compatible ? Even today, Apple computer is using standard products -- hard disk, RAM, DVD, PCI express, and even Intel processors.

Date reviewed: Jun 29, 2006 5:37 PM

Nickname: Willmark

Review: And Windows isn't a cult?

Date reviewed: Jun 23, 2006 5:05 PM

Nickname: ipod

Review: What is it that Canon printing carridges can't work on HP printers? Because HP and Canon want to make money. They know if your printer is HP and if HP only makes special cartridges for your printer you will buy HP printing cartridges.

Date reviewed: Jun 18, 2006 2:51 AM

Nickname: Read...

Review: Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DADVSI It's all about the law!

Date reviewed: Jun 15, 2006 11:11 AM

Nickname: ricainus

Review: "They simply would not be able to buy music from the iTunes store. " So? They would download it from the Belgian iTunes (in French). The French have not understood that they are just one market in that of a whole, the EU. This problem will crop up again when it comes to selling downloaded movies. If it must be done through a semi-state agency (which presently collects royalties for distribution to the artists) then people will simply load the films from some site beyond French law.

Date reviewed: May 20, 2006 4:52 PM

Nickname: Jim

Review: I've been trying to think of something positive to say about the behavior of the French government in my lifetime of more than 50 years. I'm stumped.

Date reviewed: May 17, 2006 4:44 AM

Nickname: Murphy

Review: This is nothing more than a case of French dirigisme. Apple was the first and, for a time, the only compnay capable of protecting the rights of the musicians. I suspect that even if the "French Apple Store" is physically closed, custmers can merely download from a different country. Maybe at long last the French will realize that they are not the top dogs trying to control the world.

Date reviewed: May 16, 2006 7:56 PM

Nickname: Kit

Review: Do remember that the major record companies are not going to release premium music for digital sale online unless they are convinced that the DRM solution will work. Asking different companies to open up and modify their software for interoperability should be sending shivers up the spine of the likes of EMI etc. There are efforts going on (along with the corresponding patent arguments) about generating Open DRM standards that allow things such as superdistribution (forwarding a track to a friend who then pays themselves) which the record companies would like. If this takes off, the pressure would be on MS, Creative, Apple, etc to conform

Date reviewed: May 16, 2006 5:26 PM

Nickname: qc

Review: I agree. Don't like it, don't use it. It's not as though artists distribute exclusively through iTunes.

Date reviewed: May 15, 2006 6:31 AM

Nickname: elgato

Review: You're comparing apples to oranges! It's all about protection and promotion. No TV station would ever think of broadcasting on a frequency that only one type of TV set can receive, and no TV manufacturer would ever build a TV that only picks up one channel. The markets would be too small to make it worth thier while. However if a TV manufacturer (hardware provider) also owns a cable company (content provider) he could make a TV set that picks up all the regular channels plus broadcast special channels only his hardware can tune into. Companies have been doing this in some form for decades. It shouldn't be about changing the content to fit the hardware, it should be about making hardware that supports different types of content.

Date reviewed: May 14, 2006 3:40 PM