The tax on private copying questioning

Yesterday the reporter to the State Council issued a negative opinion on the fee scales for private copying levied on multimedia hard disks or CDs and DVDs since January 1, 2009. This opinion is only advisory, but if the Council of State following ... hmm ... counsel of his own reporter, the tax could be set aside on all products raised.

Pending determination of new scales, of course. According to our confreres of 01Net, the State Council has one month to make its decision. If it had annulled the decision No 11 of the Committee on private copying, it would have 9 months to publish new schedules. They should tax exempt products purchased by businesses and professionals not intended for private copying.

Apple polish a "Cloud" Music

The future of digital music through the cloud. After Amazon and Google, Apple would prepare the upcoming release of its own music service in the cloud, "obviously related to iTunes ... According to Greg Sandoval of CNET, Apple has recently signed agreements with EMI and Warner, and is on the verge of do the same in the coming days with Sony and Universal.

The company had a few days ago, signed an agreement with DuPont Fabros Technology to build a second data center in Santa Clara giant (Clafornie). These two elements together support the hypothesis of a forthcoming availability of a music service in the Cloud able to compete with the service launched in March by Amazon and the one announced last week by Google.

Steve Jobs wants to keep the iPod Classic

Steve Jobs sent an email to a customer explaining that Apple does not intend to stop the iPod Classic. Since 2008, Apple's strategy seems to point to the killing of the iPod classic. The firm reduced its first catalog to a single model (see "The End of the iPod classic") whose characteristics have not shaky since September 2009 (see "The New Landscape iPod").

In September 2011, the iPod classic is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and we thought, like many, that would mean the end of the famous player. We expected even at a ceremony with great fanfare as Apple has done it at WWDC 2002 for the death of Mac OS 9 (see video below). Steve Jobs has yet to end such speculation by saying that Apple had no plans to discontinue the iPod Classic.

Ventura Microsoft Zune would succeed at it?

While many of the rumored death of the Zune seems to be abandoned by Microsoft, offers of employment for a project "Ventura" could mark a new milestone in the strategy's multimedia editor. The firm is seeking developers Steve Ballmer for a service "discovery and consumption of music and videos". This is very similar to the Zune online service that already exists.

It is difficult today to say whether Ventura will replace or complement the Zune service. One thing is for sure, Microsoft needs a new strategy to overcome the lethargy in which it is currently submerged. The fact that Microsoft requires that candidates have experience with Microsoft Azure suggests that the publisher wants to take advantage of cloud.

Mr. Walkman dies at the age of 84 years

Nobutoshi Kihara died Feb. 13 at the age of 84. Sony has just made public a new internal memo from his PD G Howard Stringer. He is considered by many as the father of Sony technology. Author of more than 700 patents, he is the father of the Walkman and the Betamax of an early transistor radios. He is largely responsible for the rise of the firm internationally.

He joined Sony at the time was called Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company, just after graduating from Waseda University in Tokyo. From a family of engineers, he paid his tuition by repairing radios. He quickly distinguished himself by creating the first magnetic tape recorder on.