News Archive for 06/06/21

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French service offers DRM-free music

06/21, 3:40pm

DRM-free music in France

Starzik -- a French digital music service -- is offering musical tracks without DRM copy protection, a restriction imposed by services such as iTunes. Offering 600,000 tracks from three major record labels and thousands of independent labels, the service circumvents platform differences between Microsoft Windows systems and Macs, whose incompatibilities arise from the Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection schemes imposed by digital music distributors to regulate how consumers use the music they purchase online, according to Macworld UK. Starzik's tracks will be offered in MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, and WMA formats. Thus far the store only caters to French customers, selling individual tracks for €1 each and albums for €9.

France poised to pass iTunes DRM bill

06/21, 2:10pm

France iTunes DRM bill

The French draft law that initially threatened Apple's French iTunes Music Store has passed both the National Assembly as well as the Senate, and is poised to pass both houses tomorrow. French lawmakers agreed to weaken the measures after Apple called the bill "state-sponsored piracy," resulting in a loophole for companies such as Apple and Sony which will allow them to maintain their copy protection on music with permission from music copyright holders. The bill would provide record labels with a vital bargaining chip in their struggle for variable pricing on digital music sales, though, as Apple has so far maintained a stranglehold on pricing with its industry-leading iTunes service. Key members of the process say they have agreed to many of the weaker measures endorsed by senators, according to the Associated Press.