Reading a DVD with VLC or mplayer is now illegal in France
,----[ Quote ]
| Starting tomorrow December 31st 2006, reading a DVD protected with
| CSS (as most DVD are) is illegal in France when it is done with a
| software allowing to circumvent the protection, such as VLC or
| mplayer which can both use the libdvdcss library.
`----
http://www.rfc1149.net/blog/2006/12/30/reading-a-dvd-with-vlc-or-mplayer-is-now-illegal-in-france/
Gates has recently been lobbying there, IIRC. Can France make up its mind and
cease to support monopolies whose sales become a prerequisite to accessing
content?
Related:
French consumer protectionists are demanding PCs without preinstalled
software
,----[ Quote ]
| The consumer protectionists of the French organization UFC-Que Choisir
| are demanding of the IT group Hewlett-Packard and the vendors Auchan
| and Darty that they offer PCs without preinstalled software.
|
| [...]
|
| UFC-Que Choisir last year also took action against Sony and Apple,
| taking the two companies to court for allegedly putting their
| customers at a disadvantage through proprietary DRM technologies
| and curtailing their choice of devices.
`----
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/82605/from/rss09
French consumer group attacks PC software bundling
,----[ Quote ]
| UFC-Que Choisir legal officer Sandra Wouhling said current
| practice effectively forced ordinary consumers to buy computers
| using Microsoft operating systems whereas companies anda
| dministrations were offered a real choice.
`----
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articlehybrid.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20061214:MTFH94365_2006-12-14_14-49-22_L14537403&type=comktNews&rpc=44
http://tinyurl.com/yf7kfu
Microsoft, HP expand business alliance
,----[ Quote ]
| A new deal announced Wednesday calls for, among other things, more HP
| workers to be trained to sell Microsoft products.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6143540.html
France pins hopes of growth on open-source software
,----[ Quote ]
| The French government plans to make the region around Paris a center of
| excellence for open-source software development, the French Minister of the
| Economy, Finance and Industry, Thierry Breton, said Monday.
`----
http://open.itworld.com/4915/061205franceopen/page_1.html
French National Assembly switches to Linux
,----[ Quote ]
| Linux, OpenOffice and Firefox favoured
|
| [...]
|
| One deputy in favour of the move is Bernard Carayon, commissioned by
| the Prime Minister earlier this year to report on how European
| businesses could play a greater role in developing global industrial
| standards, in order to reduce Europe's economic dependance on other
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| regions.
`----
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=7687
Bull to Supply the Most Powerful Civil Supercomputer in France to the
CCRT, the Center for Research and Technology Computing
,----[ Quote ]
| The system will be operated via an HPC platform specially optimized
| by Bull and featuring, notably: the Linux(R) operating system
`----
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/76313/index.html
Jury Hears Microsoft Competition Suit
,----[ Quote ]
| A judge on Friday told jurors they must accept as fact that a
| federal court found in 1999 that Microsoft holds a monopoly over
| computer operating systems and that it restricted computer
| manufacturers' ability to use competing systems.
|
| [...]
|
| She said she'll show that the company used its monopoly power
| to exclude competition and control prices and that it conspired with
| other companies to restrain trade, maintaining what she called a
| chokehold on software competitors and computer manufacturers.
|
| "It isn't illegal to be successful," Conlin said in opening
| remarks. "We applaud that. ... But you can't freeze out competitors
| and punish and retaliate against people who cooperate with
| competitors. Microsoft did all that and more."
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061201/microsoft_trial.html?.v=1
|
|
