I may have marched on Sunday with my friends against the French government?s plans to change the employment law for those under the age of 26, but today I?ll uphold its plans to amend an online music copyright bill.

The change to the employment law, styled as the ?Kleenex? bill, is hugely unpopular with youth, allowing companies to get rid of young workers without having to give a reason. Those same youngsters would readily back the government?s plans to force online music providers to end copy protection on songs. It?s an amendment that could have a major benefit for consumers worldwide, if other governments follow France?s lead on the issue.

For example Apple?s iTunes online store currently sells music that can only be played on its iPod music player. The iPod only plays songs bought in the iTunes FairPlay music format.

The French law would sever that link, allowing songs sold at iTunes to be played on any other digital music player. Apple would also have to change the iPod to allow it to play other music formats. The bill would also affect the exclusive file format found at Sony?s Connect store, which can only be played on its digital player.

What the companies will do after the vote in Parliament yesterday is uncertain. They look certain to lose their grip on the market, if other governments take up the cause. I would certainly march in support of such moves.

At the end of February, Apple was boasting that it set a new record for online music sales when it sold its billionth song.

?Speed of Sound? was purchased as part of Coldplay?s ?X&Y? album, by Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan.

He won a 20-inch iMac, ten 60GB iPods and a $10,000 card to buy more songs.

In other Apple news, the contest to see whether someone could hack into a Mac and get it to run Windows XP has ended.

A couple of anonymous hackers have won $13,854 in prize money for completing the feat. Colin Nederkoorn, a Mac fan, started the competition after Apple unveiled computers that used Intel chips earlier this year.

The rules required hackers to get both Windows XP and Apple?s OSX running on the same machine without any conflicts. PCs and Apple Mac machines use different technology to load the operating systems.

You will need an original XP Professional SP2 CD ROM, a winxponmac0.1.zip file, Nero Burning ROM software, a blank CD and up to 30 minutes of time. A PC with XP already installed is an optional bonus. Of course, you?ll need a iMac, Mac Mini or MacBook Pro.

Don?t do this on a machine unless you?ve backed everything up and are prepared for computer hell if things go wrong. Details (and the zip file) of how to do it yourself are now available at: http://wiki.onmac.net.