French Elections Could Affect HADOPI, ACTA 153
bs0d3 writes "From having a position in the development and support of ACTA, to implementation of HADOPI, to imposing an internet tax to pay for music; France has been at the forefront of anti-piracy legislation. This week, it has been announced that current President and anti-piracy advocate Nicolas Sarkozy is unlikely to win the next election. His leading opponent is a man named Francois Hollande. Hollande has in the past opposed both ACTA and HADOPI (France's 3 strikes law). Hollande believes that ACTA, 'originally intended to combat counterfeiting trade[,] was gradually diverted from its objective, in the utmost discretion and without any democratic process.' At the same time, Hollande is also strongly against piracy. 'Piracy has been costly,' Hollande said, 'but I do not think that law enforcement alone is the answer to the problem.' Will internet issues be of concern to the voters in France? It certainly is to the rest of us internet users."
Re:Right to be left.. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Too early to tell (Score:5, Informative)
Considering Sarkozy got only 1% less of the vote than Hollande in the first round, it's far too early to call it. All the folks that voted for other candidates will pick 1 of the 2 in the next round, and considering the massive amount of votes that went to Le Pen...we might very well be seeing more of Sarkozy.
Maybe, but according to exit polls in round 1 [parismatch.com], the 18% who voted for Le Pen are only leaning 48/31 for Sarkozy over Hollande, while the 11% who voted for Mélenchon are leaning 83/6 for Hollande over Sarkozy. The poll shows Hollande leading by 9 points, 54.5% vs 45.5%.
Re:Right to be left.. (Score:5, Informative)
As a dutchman, I'm telling you that plenty of us would be happy to kick Wilders out of the country
In other words, you disagree with the majority of your voters? You sound like a particularly bitter political person one who blames the majority of your countrymen's as being fearful idiots who simply vote for someone for one obviously bad reason.
You know there are countries that have more than two political parties? Where you can 'win' an election (with the most votes) because you are the largest minority?
In the last Dutch election Wilders got 24 of the 150 seats in the Dutch parliament, making his party the third largest party in Dutch parliament (behind the VVD - 31 seats - and the PvdA - 30 seats). Hardly a majority isn't it?
Re:Go Sarko (Score:4, Informative)
Hollande is unclear on those questions (Score:5, Informative)
During this campaign, François Hollande sent many contradictory signals regarding Hadopi, the anti-piracy legislation. At the beginning of 2012, he said he would abrogate this law. Later he said he would just modify it. Finally he published a letter where he stood aside of the rights holder against pirates, and claimed he would "gather everyone around a table", a trick he used on many topics he wanted to evade. So, even if Hollande is elected (he probably will), no one knows whether he will actually change anything.
Now, on a sidenote, on why French internal policies may have their place on headlines:
* France and Germany are the most influent countries in Europe and a shift of their positions could change the European ones. And since Europe is the first economic power in the world and gathers 27 countries, international treaties and regulations are worthless without it. Here is why such a topic may be of importance.
* If USA's internal policies are on the headlines, why not other countries? Not all of the American policies reported on Slashdot matters for people outside of the USA (95% of the world, the rest of us).
So, yes, a shift in French position regarding the Internet regulation would matter and should be on Slashdot. This news, however, I don't think so.
Re:French internal politics? (Score:5, Informative)
"Hollande was nominated to be the Socialist and Left Radical Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election."
You known, it is pretty funny to read this from a french point of view. The socialist party in France is considered as a moderate one. And I actually have no idea why the hell the english version of wikipedia says that he was nominated to be the left radical party candidate. It a guy called Mélenchon (and there are other candidates to his left). But I suppose that he is so far on the left that he overflows american standards...