Politicians Consider Mandating Single Music Format Standard
from the how-to-kill-the-music-industry dept
Politicians really like to meddle where no meddling is needed, don't they? The latest, is that some politicians are responding to complaints by users concerning all the different digital music file formats by thinking about legally mandating music file compatibility. While the industry has been particularly shortsighted in not setting up compatibility on their own (the more compatible, the more people can use your system, the more value the songs have, the more value your system has -- seems easy enough), the idea that the government should step in and force compatibility seems like a dreadful idea that would simply stop all innovation when it came to music file formats. Forcing every music file format to meet some politically motivated standard will make it difficult for newer or better file formats to be created. There's simply no reason the government needs to be involved here.
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Prime time to dismantle the DMCA
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