Sprayfly

With only 7 days to go before the vote on the French DRM law on web-radios, I thought it was time for an update.
That was when I found out that the person who was supposedly running the Anti-DRM website and the founder of the movement has mysteriously disappeared.

Thankfully, this does not mean the end of the movement and the forums are still online and full of people. The blog is also still being updated.
The cause of Anthony’s disappearance (the guy who runs the site) is currently unknown although some suspect he is hiding from the big corporations behind this new law (You are always treading dangerous ground when openly opposing Microsoft).

There is a nice article in English on the Anti-DRM law in France here

The DRM law is being brought in to stop people ripping songs and web-streams from currently freely available web-radio streams in France. Find out more about DRM and what it stands for here

My Personaly view is that this law will have little effect. Whilst many web-radios will close down, it will still be quite easy to rip songs from french radios by recording directly from a computers sound card.

Please sign the petition on the site to put an end to this infringement on civil liberties.

On the 23rd of December, a new law in France will mean that the liberty of many Web Radio stations will be diminished.
Such webradios are listened to widely, both in France and all over the globe. In fact, I am myself a keen listener of Click N Rock, a popular Rock channel that diffuses music 24/7 without adverts.

The Law

The new law, due to be voted by the French National Assembly would impose DRM (digital rights management) on stations who traditionally broadcast using a publicly accessible stream. This principle is comparable to that which ‘Apple’ have used on music downloaded from the ‘Itunes Music Store’ to prevent the peer to peer distribution of MP3 and AAC files. The object of this new law is to protect “authors rights”.

DRM

Digital rights management would put a stop to the illegal distribution and copying of radio diffusions. Already, programs such as ’station ripper’ have appeared on the web that permit users to rip a broadcast into an MP3 file on their computer. Some even permit you to sort through the broadcast to extract songs which can then be used in an MP3 player. Digital rights management involves encrypting the stream so that it cannot be ripped in this way without breaking the encryption (quite tricky!)

A costly Measure

The new law would force the webradios, usually run by small collectives, to fork out for expensive server technology to encode the stream.’Windows Media Player’ is just one example of such technology. The license alone for such a technology would be too expensive for most of these radio stations who are already paying SACEM, an organisation that promotes author rights, for the right to broadcast commercial music.

Bye bye freedom

Individuals would then have to connect to the stream using mainstream programs such as ‘Windows Media Player’ or ‘Real Player’, making previously popular and more liberal solutions such as Nullsofts ‘Winamp’ obsolete.
This law would ironically deprive the French of yet another liberty, in a country whose national motto is “Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite”.

Don’t let it happen

Don’t let the french government get away with this.
A collective of some twenty or thirty french webradios has put together a website with a forum and petition to campaign against this law. Over 5000 signatures have already been obtained. Your voice is important and will count!
Please go to http://www.webradios-france.com and sign the petition!

Finally, I have finished reading “Harry Potter et le Prince de Sang-Mélé”.
It was an excellent read and the translation was perfect. This is by far the best book in the series so far, both in English and in French.
As far as the translation goes, I might even venture to say that it was better than the third book.
I’m now moving on to Michel Strogoff (De Moscou à Irkoutsk) and I’ll let you all know what I think when I’ve actually got going.