[advocacy] Libérez la musique !

[Eric Belanger Bilange/BlackMage]

>
>
>I know, this might be a stupid question, but is anyone out there who is
>totally bored, with tons of time to waste, and able to properly
>translate this text? :)
>
Sure, I made my way thru this text in an hour (phew..).. my english is 
not perfect; i added some comments or similar words in the text.. look 
for the []'s :)

Free the music!

The free software community perseveres on the music scene. After file 
sharing services like Gnutella, a new weapon comes to
enrich its aresnal: the audio numeric format known as Ogg Vorbis. Free, 
it constitutes a potential menace [or threat] for the
content control strategies installed [or set up] by the [disc labels? 
you know, where the artists have their songs 'hosted'
etc..]

"We would like to develop a technology that belongs to no one and which 
is accessible to anyone", decalres Christopher
Montgomery, Ogg Vorbis creator, more known under the nick "Monty". "its 
the only way for the consumer to get what he wants,
not what the industry imposes to him". Just out of the [famous?] 
Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), Monty started
to develop an audio compression free software in the mid-ninties. His 
objective? To Invent a technology better [superior]
from the ones at this time [period, age]. He called this project Vorbis, 
in reference to an evil [bad] character in a Terry
Pratch sci-fi roman [...called] "Small Gods"

At the end of 1998, this leisure became a full-time misson when the 
Fraunhofer institute, the German research institute that
developped the MP3 format with a French Society Thomson Multimedia, 
announces that this technology freely available  [since
this point] would be subjected to a [new..?] licence for this day forth: 
anyone generating more than $100.000 in a year by
distributing music on the Internet or by broadcasting in mp3 'streaming' 
must pay 2 to 3% to the Fraunhofer institute and
Thomson Multimedia. And it costs to encoder/player developers up to 
$1.25 and $7.50 each time a user download their products,
or an annual fixed price from $50.000 to $150.000 by year. Ogg vorbis 
supporters confirmed that nothing prevents Fraunhofer
Institute and Thomson Multimedia to change their licence policies, even 
if they someday wanna make the consumer pay .

Besides mp3, the [two] technologies that rule the market [business] were 
developped by RealNetworks and microsoft. Each
company are looking to impose [to force?] their format by gradually 
limiting its compatibility with other concurrent
technologies, and [move forward their pawn: french expression only?] by 
signing partenerships with [disks labels, same in the
1st paragraph] which controls most of the musical production. 
Realnetworks provides their technological platform to the
upcoming paying service Musicnet. Microsoft does the same thing with the 
concurent service Pressplay. In each case, audio
files will be equiped with an anticopy protection system, supposed to 
disallow [prevents] any rights violation. "It is not a
copyright protection system, as the labels want us to believe, but a 
distribution control locking [or blocking] system. The
consumer is losing there, same thing for the artist."

    Dificult to takeover MP3

On the other hand,  Ogg Vorbis is a free technology, just like Linux, 
then free and open. "Ogg vorbis audio quality isbetter
[superior] to MP3", according to artists that chose [..this format] to 
encode their work so they will be available online,
"and the files are smaller, which reduce the download time". 
Xiphophorus, non-profit organisation founded by Monty to host
its project, published last summer an ultimate [final?] test version. 
The first final version (1.0) took some delay, but
Monty ensure that [..the release] will be imminent and report the final 
release [push away the release date] to add new
functions requested from users. He is surrounded by a half dozen of 
permanent collaboarators. Another half-dozen regualty
contributes to the project. In 3 years, a hundered people took part.

Ogg vorbis has been downloaded several million times. Some "plug-ins", 
small relay software that ensure compatibility between
different technologies, allows to  OGG files to be readed by lots of 
players, ie. windows media player, sonique, winamp and
freeamp. Every Linux systems does support Ogg Vorbis, just as a growing 
number of online radios and streaming technologies.
The portable numeric player HipZip from Iomega even offers an Ogg Vorbis 
option.
OGG files are still rare on the network [Internet]. This new technology 
can be free and compatible with any platforms, 2
points that assured the mp3 success, but [Mp3] will not be surpassed 
easily. "Ogg vorbis success wont rely [depend] on the
industry but on the users, no one said that they are motivated to change 
to this format", quotes Steve McCannell, O'Reilly
Network analyst, by insisting on the really competitive dimension of 
that market [?]; if the upcoming paying services will be
sucessful, Ogg Vorbis will stay marginal. Moreover, Ogg Vorbis is a 
non-secured format, like Mp3, seemed to be an assured
failure when the music companies, supported by some stars, trail in 
front of [???] the court everyone guily of copyrights
violation.

But Monty keep his mind: "Mp3 is getting old, and it is not really under 
a sustained [constant] development, its part of the
market will decline, creating an empty space that demands to be 
filled.", he affirmed. However, Fraunhofer Institute and
Thomson Multimedia launched their last [newest] compression format, 
MP3Pro, more performant than mp3. Some companies like
Texas Instruments already decided to obtain a licence when the musical 
distribution site mp3.com now allows to listen music
encoded in that mp3pro format. For the rest, "theres nothing better than 
a securised format", say Moritz Grimm, an artist
installed in Germany who [sends, broadcast] its music on the Internet. 
"Protection mechanisms are meant to be cracked and
none of the articles in the Digital Millenium Copyrigt Act will change 
something about it; nothing will prevent people from
distributing my music on the Internet, nor to prefer to listen it on CD.

--- >8 ----
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