Free Republic

Yahoo reports that France is pushing through a law that would ultimately force Apple to open its iTunes music store to other devices. The new law would allow consumers to be able to legally use software to convert digital content into any format. It would no longer be illegal to crack digital rights management -- the codes that protect music, films and other content -- if it is to enable to the conversion from one format to another This would allow protected content to be playable on any device. If enacted, some speculate that Apple could shut down the French...

FRANCE'S prisons are the worst in Europe and their cells are akin to dungeons in the Middle Ages, according to a watchdog's report yesterday. Hygiene is "deplorable", with inmates crowded into filthy, rat-infested cells, leading to an explosion in the number of prisoners with infectious diseases, the International Observatory of Prisons (IOP) said. It described conditions as "catastrophic" and condemned the French government for failing to improve matters. "The situation is totally unworthy of our level of civilisation. Conditions of detention are close to those of the Middle Ages," the Paris-based IOP said. It blamed the government's tougher sentencing polices...