Free P2P In France? 190
cyberbian writes to tell us that earlier in the week the French Parliament voted to allow free sharing of music and movies on the Internet. This ruling puts them in direct conflict with both the Media companies and the rest of the French government. From the article: " If the amendment survives, France would be the first country to legalize so called peer-to-peer downloading, said Jean-Baptiste Soufron, legal counsel to the Association of Audionautes, a French group that defends people accused of improperly sharing music files. The law would be a blow to media companies that increasingly use the courts worldwide to sue people for downloading or sharing music and movie files. Entertainment companies such as Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc. and News Corp.'s Fox say free downloading of unauthorized copies of TV shows and movies before they are released on DVD will cost them $5 billion in revenue this year."
Please ! (Score:5, Insightful)
By the way, stop using IP as an acronym for Intellectual Property, IP is Internet Protocol.
5 billion lost?! Oh no! (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course not ... (Score:4, Insightful)
It is also important to note that among those so called pro P2P stand some of the most right winged politicians, namely Christine Boutin, known for her brain washed positions against abortion, homosexuality et al ... You would think of some better advocatee to defend freedom .
IMO this pro P2P stand is taken by a bunch of know nothings politician that just want the free exposure and a chance to look modern and up to date, as the majority of the population here is pro P2P. All this noise is a real shame too as you would think that after 2 weeks of urban riots these people would have some more important things to care about.
One good thing tho is that the actual "ministre de la culture" who is a total dick is in a real bad position now, being defeated by the left and right of the parliament.
Rest assure that the right wing government will promptly deal with this situation and burry the problem fast.
As far as I know... (Score:3, Insightful)
What we're talking about here is extending the concept of "private copying" to include peer-to-peer downloads. This is allowed by many copyright laws, almost all passed when you had generational loss and copies would be inferior. In short, it is a legal way to copy the works of others without the copyright holder's permission.
Since digital copies are perfect clones, and there's no borders on the Internet, it would pretty much obliterate all copyright in the private sector world-wide. What do you think the odds are of that passing? Not until you see the Devil wearing a pink tutu doing a triple axel on ice skates in Hell.
Re:Please ! (Score:3, Insightful)
By the way, stop using IP as an acronym for Intellectual Property, IP is Internet Protocol.
It's both - short acronyms are as sought-after as short domain names, and there is even less you can do about someone else using the one you thought you owned. Lawyers talk about IP all the time.
A tax is worse than a ban... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seems bad, really bad... You can always break the law, as Heinlein once said: "But I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; If I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am responsible for everything I do." ("The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", 1966). It's much harder to avoid paying a tax that's built into the price you pay for access to the web.
As I mentioned this morning on another story [slashdot.org], the problem with illegal copying is that products are priced much higher than their true value. I was in France a couple of weeks ago and saw some fruit stands in Paris that worked based on customers' honesty. The fruit were in cardboard boxes on the sidewalk, you picked whatever you wanted and stepped into the store to pay. Are French people so honest that they will always pay the price? I don't think so. Although I wouldn't mind picking a few 500 euro bills from a box on the sidewalk and then step inside to write a check, no bank in France works the same way grocers do.
Each business must work according to the product being sold. What's so wrong about this bill in France is that they seem to be transfering the duties of the merchant to others. Jewelers in France must provide their own safes and break-proof glass showcases. Fruitstand vendors must keep an eye for people who walk away without paying. Yet the media industry want to transfer to the ISPs the chore of making sure that no one copies a song without paying...
Re:5 billion lost?! Oh no! (Score:2, Insightful)
Having said that, there's no way I would engage in copyright infringement by using P2P. I just do without. It's an "ethical" thing in my case; I don't consider it fair use unless I paid for the original. However, as soon as the payment is made then all aspects of fair use are expected. At that point it's my right to lend the original media to a friend or make backup copies or use it anywhere on equipment I own.
It's an attempt to adhere to the true spirit of fair use and meshes comfortably with my world view.
The point is, in the context of the article, how many people actually fall into your camp and how many into mine?
This is going down (Score:5, Insightful)
"The amendment was approved 30 to 28, with 22 members of the UMP voting in favor. While there are 577 members of the lower house, few were present for last night's vote."
And if you look back up the article (obviously the author was trying to sensationalise this):
"The government can overturn the amendment, either by re- opening debate or if the Senate votes it down when the bill moves to the upper house. French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres has asked that parliament re-open debate on the amendment today, Agence France Presse reported."
So only one-tenth of the house were present for the amendment. It seems like everyone else had gone home. 22 of the votes in favour were by a (what appears to be) minority party. As soon as parliament reconvenes, this will be gone. It's way too crazy/stupid/radical, I very much doubt the majority party want this, and you'd need a serious rebellion from that party in order to push this through.
It's not news so much as a political machination that happens all the time ("Quick! They're asleep! Slip in that amendment!")
Re:So stop withholding the product (Score:5, Insightful)
Well considering the way the general populace of the internet has behaved, I don't blame them.
And in doing that, they are directly responsible for most of the file trading.
False. Movies are traded on P2P because people like getting shit for free. There's really no philosophy, unless it's mentioned and people hide behind one "Uh yeah, cause I can't buy it. Right." It's only a question of whether it's J-Random-Warezd00d or the studio releasing it unprotected first. The feeding frenzy that is p2p trading would be just as vigorous.
Re:Please ! (Score:4, Insightful)
No, stop using IP as an acronym for Internet Protocol. Intellectual Property came first.
Re:law world wide? (Score:3, Insightful)
2. this plants ideas into the minds of legislators everywhere and gives them a test-bed (france) where it's effects can be seen.
3. people worldwide will see this and wonder why THEY don't have similar legislation. We, in the US, do this all the time... anytime something shows up in europe people over here start mentioning it left and right. 'how come WE don't have a law that does such and such???" such copycats...
Basically this is going to start to show to the world that the sharing of files isn't going to cause nazi's to ride in on dinosaurs...
Re:Please ! (Score:2, Insightful)
Y'all beware of the jag-wire now! (Score:3, Insightful)
Clarification (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm really tired of the thinking of RIAA == musicians. This isn't true. Most artists care about their music and their fans.
Only a small portion of artists are bling-bling, Ferrari-drivin', $100,000-watch-wearing, $20M-mansion-living people. The vast majority of us musicians are average, have normal lives, and make normal livings. (It's surprising that rich musicians can be just as terrible as us poor musicians, isn't it?)
The music business is evolving (albeit more slowly than music itself). It will all work out fine in the end. Things will go in such a way that people will make money somehow, and fans will get their product.
It is OK to want to protect one's works. If anarchy was the rule of the day, many of the nay-sayers wouldn't have jobs. Somehow, some way, there's got to be a healthy balance between sharing/access and sales/income. Standing in your living room saying that music and movies should be free because you're entitled to them is narrow-minded. If you'd like stuff for free, work with artists - lend them a hand (technical, promotional, etc.). They'll give you free music and more.
Re:Actual Cost? (Score:3, Insightful)
"Without them, we would still be listening to public domain recordings of Classical music. There's nothing wrong with the Classical tunes, but our culture would be so much less vibrant than it has become without incentives of success available to performers."
People seem to forget that it is supposed to be for the "public domain" that copyright exists in the first place. These things are supposed to go into that public domain no matter what the media companies like to think. That is the problem. Copyright wasn't invented solely for the media companies to make profit but to "promote science and the useful arts". Of course, you couldn't tell that with the terms on copyright these days, but that can change.
B.