[advocacy] Libérez la musique !

[Bacchus Thirteen]

There are translation sites around.  Here is a
translation at http://www.alis.com/  Not perfect, but
enough to understand.

Release the music!

The community of the free software perseveres on
the face of the
music. After the services of exchange of files
such as Gnutella, a
new weapon comes to enrich its arsenal: the
numerical format of music
Ogg Vorbis. Free, it constitutes a potential
threat for the
strategies of control of the contents
installation by the houses of
discs. We want to develop a technology which
does not belong to
anybody and is accessible to all ", declares
Christopher Montgomery,
the creator of Ogg Vorbis, more known under the
nickname of " Monty
". " It is the only means for the consumer of
obtaining what he
wants, not what industry imposes to him " Fresh
émoulu prestigious
Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Monty started to
develop a free software of audio compression
with the middle of the
Nineties. Its objective? To invent a technology
known érieure with
those of the time. It called the Vorbis project,
in reference to a
malicious character of the science-fiction novel
of Terry Pratch, "
Small Gods ".

At the end of 1998, this leisure became a
full-time mission when
Fraunhofer Institute, the German institute of
search which developed
format MP3 with the French company Thomson
Multimédia, announced that
this technology available until there free would
henceforth be
subjected to a mode of licence: whoever
generates more than 100.000
dollars of turnover per annum by distributing
music on Internet or
while diffusing in " streaming " with format MP3
must pour 2 to 3 %
in Fraunhofer Inst tute and Thomson Multimedia.
And it costs some the
developers of coders and readers MP3 up to 1,25
and 7,50 dollars
respectively each time that a user downloads
their products _ or an
annual fixed price from 50.000 to 150.000
dollars per annum. The
partisans of Ogg Vorbis make the point that
nothing prevents
Fraunhofer Institute and Thomson Multimédia to
change their policy of
licence, even if it means to make pay the
consumer one day.

Except the MP3, two technologies which dominate
the market were
developed by RealNetworks and Microsoft. Each
company seeks to impose
its format by gradually limiting its
compatibility with concurrent
technologies, and advances in an aggressive way
its pawns by signing
partnerships with the houses of discs which
control the essence of
the musical production. RealNetworks provides
its technological
platform to the future paying service MusicNet.
Microsoft makes in
the same way with the service C ncurrent
Pressplay. **time-out** in
each case, the file musical with format Real
Audio or Windows Media
Audio be equip of a system de protection
anticopie supposed prevent
all violation of royalty d' auteur. " It is not
a question of a
system de protection of royalty d' auteur, as
the label want the make
believe, but of a system of locking of control
of distribution,
affirm Monty. The consumer loses there and the
artists also "

Difficult of détrôner the MP3

On the other hand, Ogg Vorbis is a free
technology _ like Linux _,
therefore free and open. **time-out** the
quality audio of Ogg Vorbis
be higher with that of MP3, according to some
artist which it have
elect for encoder their own work so that it be
diffuse on line, and
the file be more small, which reduce the
duration of downloading.
Xiphophorus, the non-profit organization founded
by Monty to shelter
the project, published the last summer an
ultimate version of test.
**time-out** the first version final (1.0) have
p is some delay, but
Monty ensure that it be imminent and charge the
delay with decision
to add some new function at request of user. It
is surrounded by a
half-dozen of permanent collaborators. Another
half-dozen contributes
regularly to the project. In three years, a
hundred people took part.

Ogg Vorbis was downloaded several million times.
" plug-in ", small
software relay which ensures compatibility
between different
technologies, makes it possible files OGG to be
read by several
software of reading, of which Windows Media
Player, Sonique, WinAmp
and FreeAmp. All the Linux systems support Ogg
Vorbis, just as a
growing number of radios on line and
technologies of streaming. The
numerical reader portable HipZip d' Iomega
offers even an option Ogg
Vorbis.

It does not remain about it less than files OGG
are still a scarcity
on the network. **time-out** the news technology
A beautiful be free
and compatible with all the platform, two
ingredient which have
policy-holder the success of MP3, it last be not
easy with détrôner.
" The success of Ogg Vorbis depend not of
industry but of user, but
it be not known as that they be justify for
change of format ",
underline Steve McCannell, analyst of O' Reilly
Network, in insistent
on the dimension very compét tive of market _ if
the future service
paying have of success, Ogg Vorbis remain
marginal. **time-out**
moreover, Ogg Vorbis be a format not-protected,
like the MP3, a
insurance of failure seem it per hour when the
label, support by some
star, trail in front of the court all the
culprit suppose of
violation of royalty d' auteur.

But Monty in démord not: " the MP3 ages, but it
is not the subject
really any more of a constant development. Its
share of market
inevitably will decline, creating a vacuum which
only requires to be
filled ", affirms it. **time-out** however, the
Fraunhofer Institute
and Thomson Multi-media have launch in June last
their new format of
compression, the MP3Pro, more powerful than the
MP3. Of industrialist
as Texas Instrument have already decide to
acquire this licence
whereas the site of diffusion musical MP3.com Pr
pose some song
encodés in MP3Pro. **time-out** for the
remainder, " it exist nothing
of such as a format make safe ", rétorque Moritz
Grimm, a musician
install in Germany which diffuse its music on
Internet " The
mechanism of protection be intend to be break
and no article of
DIGITAL Millenium Copyright Act there change
nothing; nothing will
never prevent people from exchanging my music by
Internet, nor to
prefer to listen to it on CD "

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