I'm waiting to spend my first Euro on Apple's iTunes !
What for ?
Well I'm waiting for the French legislation to go through, that will stop them from selling in their proprietary format. That will allow me to listen to it with the mp3 software of my choice and on the mp3 player of my choice. I own an iPod and that's it. But I am sick of not being able to play the music with or on what Apple have decided.
I pay, I choose.
I'm also sick of listening to wining idiots on poor quality tech sites that have no other comments than to crack jokes about the French. Weird that, since several other European countries started voicing the fact that they would also like this very large market player to stop taking advantage of its dominant position, they no longer know what to say or who to joke at !
Well there have been some serious articles written but they seem to have a different opinion, could it be the lack of intelligence involved with the other joke happy idiots ? The Apple business model is as always with Apple a closed model that combining factors has brought to the forefront but this may be the way forward for a more open model...
And the first song I'll buy, will be Natalie Walker's No One Else. The whole album may have come out by the time Apple have finally come to their senses !
Hey the proprietary formats are ridiculous anyway.
Update : Interesting article at Fortune magazine :
Gravier says technology companies fail to realize that opening their software could create a boom for online purchases, since millions more people would be able to play downloads, increasingly on their mobile phones. "When records came out, they said it would close concert halls," Gravier notes. "But they are still there."
As well as a very interesting article at the Interntational Herald Tribune :
"Europe has managed to shift the debate into a conflict between citizens and digital controls," said Peter Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, a group that opposes proprietary software. "This is great because the discussion has been limited to technology circles for too long."