French competition body rejeccts&#39; open iPod&#39; claim
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The French Competition Council has rejected Virgin France&#39;s claim that Apple&#39;s FairPlay technology should be licensed to other companies&#39; online music stores.
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(InfoWorld) - French authorities will give out 175,000 USB memory sticks loaded with open-source software to Parisian high-school students at the start of the next school year. The sticks will give the students, aged 15 and 16, the freedom to access their e-mail, browser bookmarks and other documents on computers at school, home, a friend's house or in an Internet cafÃ© -- but at a much lower cost than providing notebook computers for all, a spokesman for the Greater Paris Regional Council said Friday. It's a way to reduce the digital divide, said spokesman Jean-Baptiste Roger. The sticks will probably contain the Firefox 2 Web browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, an office productivity suite such as OpenOffice.org 2, an audio and video player, and software for instant messaging, he said. The exact mix of software will be defined by the company that wins the contract to supply the sticks, but will be open source, he said. At the European arm of the foundation behind the Firefox browser, Mozilla Europe president Tristan Nitot hailed the news as "an excellent surprise." It could even be a way to fight software piracy, he said, since the open-source software that the sticks will contain may be freely and legally copied. "It's better to copy that than Microsoft Office: it's cheaper, and it's legal," he said. School heads will distribute the USB (Universal Serial Bus) sticks to 130,000 students at the start of the next academic year, as they arrive for their first of three years at high school. There are 476,000 students in the 468 public high schools operated by the council and the 213 privately run schools it funds. Apprentices at the 173 professional training centers funded by the council will receive the other 45,000 sticks. If the project goes well, there's no reason why funding shouldn't be renewed next year, said Roger. The council plans to spend â¬2.6 million (US$3.4 million) on the USB sticks this year, a small fraction of its overall educational budget. School funding in France comes from many sources. Teachers are paid by the national government, while the provision of teaching facilities including the construction and maintenance of schools is paid for by local governments: city authorities, in the case of primary and middle schools, and regional councils in the case of high schools. In 2006, the Greater Paris Regional Council's budget for maintaining high school facilities, including buildings, libraries and its 120,000 computers, totalled â¬728 million. It also spent â¬195 million on facilities for apprentices in professional training centers.
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A consumer's group said Wednesday it has complained to government regulators about the cost of downloading music from Apple's iTunes system.    British buyers are charged 79 pence, or $1.41, for one track, while customers in France and Germany pay euro0.99, or $1.21...
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Hostilities started in late July, when Real cracked Apple&#39;s FairPlay code, meaning songs bought from the RealPlayer Music Store could be played on the iPod - a move that went down very badly over at Apple. Real then decided to ratchet up the pressure by ...
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A report into the habits of iPod owners reveals they prefer free music to tracks they have to pay for.
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The European Commission has received a  formal complaint that a levy on electronic gadgets to  compensate for private copying of music distorts the EU's  internal market, a top Commission official said on Wednesday.
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An international media rights group has accused a French company of selling equipment to China used by the government to jam foreign radio broadcasts.
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The piracy-battered music industry will for the first time sue British, French and Austrian music fans, including a French school teacher
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It&#39;s official. All iPod users are music thieves - according to Microsoft CEO Steve &#39;Monkey Boy&#39; Ballmer. &quot;The most common format of music on an iPod is &#39;stolen&#39;,&quot; he told reporters in London today, according to a Silicon.
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French Open officials will next month review the issue of awarding equal prize money to men and women at the claycourt grand slam.
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European Parliament is pushing for changes in how musicians collect online copyright fees.
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Apple's iTunes is referred to the European Commission on the grounds that it over-charges UK customers.
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BusinessWeek has published a special report that asks &quot;Could Apple Blow Its iPod Lead?&quot; That title is more sensational than the article itself, however, as
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Madrid&#39;s Olympic bidders complained to the IOC about Paris&#39; use of French embassies to promote the city&#39;s candidacy for the 2012 Summer Games.
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The French Competition Council has dismissed a case brought by Virgin&#39;s French arm against Apple Computer for alleged abuse of market dominance.
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The OFT refers Apple's iTunes to the European Commission on the grounds that it over-charges UK customers.
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By Jamey Keaten Associated Press  PARIS -- A new law in France makes it a crime for anyone who is not a professional journalist to film real-world violence and distribute the images on the Internet.