Johnny Law won’t be too happy about this, but some honest, hard-working citizens have created an electronic license plate blurring device. At the flick of a switch, the Bullrun will obfuscate the numbers and letters of a license plate, making it nigh impossible for the long arm of the law to identify you. Granted, this is probably not looked upon too kindly by law enforcement, perhaps it’s even illegal, but laws are silly things anyway. – Nicholas Deleon

Bullrun Tech, Subterfuge Edition: Electronic License Plate Blur Effect [Jalopnik]

Filed under: Portable Audio

After all sorts of protesting, name calling and backtracking, the French legislature has finally managed to pass their DRM law that could spell a bit of trouble for iTunes and other companies bent on locking down their own respective file formats. The language has been toned down a bit from the original draft, and we don’t have a new response from Apple or a hint of how this final version might be implemented, but the basic requirement of the bill is that Online music stores provide a method for users to play downloaded files on any device, as long as device manufacturers ask nicely. More recent revisions allowed some exceptions to this rule, including if the copyright holders weren’t willing to have the DRM opened up, but from the sounds of it there are industry types on both sides of the argument. Some are jumping at the chance to price DRMed songs independently of Apple, yet still land them on the iPod. Apparently there are still a couple weeks for the law to be challenged and struck, but once it goes in action we’ll be quite interested to see how Apple and others react — a France sans iTunes?

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

France’s iPod law came and went, and Denmark’s anti-iTunes Music Store pressure didn’t really seem gather a whole lot of steam; we just saw Norway turn to their own national consumer ombudsman for assistance in prying open Apple’s FairPlay DRM so Apple music will, um, play fairly on other devices. But now we can tack on another to the growing number of European nations dissatisfied with Apple’s DRM lockbox: Sweden. The Swedish Consumer Agency spokeswoman Marianne Aabyhammar had this to say about the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish anti-iTunes triumvirate: “iTunes’ terms and conditions are illegal in all three countries,” and “If iTunes fails to improve its terms and conditions in Sweden, we may take the case to Sweden’s market court.” Funny how this same spirit of Swedish openness drove Jens of Sweden out of business, but let’s keep focused; there’s no denying that we’re past the tipping point, and the pressure by European states for Appleto open its music systems is only going to increase in virulence. If Apple’s going to make it out of this one unscathed, it seems like they might have to seriously reconsider their business model — at least in Europe.

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Filed under: Culture

In a decision being touted by prosecutors as a major victory in the war on inmate cellphone usage, jurors slapped Texan Michael Manor with a surprising 40-year sentence for what they considered the very serious crime of possessing a cellphone in prison. Manor, who was already serving 32 years on auto theft charges, was not even charged with using the phone for criminal purposes; rather, the long sentence comes as a result of a new zero-tolerance cellphone policy in the Texas prison system, where the offense was recently given third-degree felony status. Corrections offers are also a target of the crackdown, with prosecutors promising to bring offenders in front of juries instead of offering them probation, although there are concerns that the stricter penalties may actually make smuggling appear more lucrative.

[Via textually]