French Court Levies First Fine Under 3-Strikes Piracy Law 229
itwbennett writes "In the first trial resulting from the controversial three-strikes copyright law, a French court on Thursday fined a man €150 for failing to secure his Internet connection. His negligence led to the illegal download of files, including two Rihanna songs that were downloaded by his wife."
Re:Good job France! (Score:5, Insightful)
France, out of nowhere, is suddenly showing surprising competitiveness in the "Passing dumbass laws so the rest of the world can see what a bad idea they are" department.
A lot less dumbass than elsewhere: 150 euros is a slap on the wrist. I bet speeding tickets go for more. This is downright enlightened by G20 standards. In the United States, people get thrown in jail, or face hundred thousand dollar fines -- thus ensuring permanent poverty for life.
That's strangely sane and oddly normal. (Score:5, Insightful)
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/09/11/1740241/8th-circuit-upholds-220000-verdict-in-jammie-thomas-case [slashdot.org]
In the USA it's $9250 per song. In France it's â75 ($190 US) per song.
The penalty in France seems to me to be proportionate and sane. The person penalized did, or allowed to be done, something illegal but not especially malicious or very damaging. They face a penalty which will certainly be unwelcome and which will probably encourage them to act within the law. No huge court case, no lives wrecked, no lawyers riding the gravy train. *This is how a legal system is supposed to be.* That is the difference between "The Rule of Law" and "The Rule of Lawyers".
Re:Heh (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it's advocating violence against men - which, my political correctness compass tells me, is absolutely fine.
150 euro fine, in fact.
Re:Good job France! (Score:4, Insightful)
Good riddance I say. Let the rich leave, and other entrepreneurs start new businesses that actually make the economy grow.
Re:That's strangely sane and oddly normal. (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, behaving within the law means the guy turned off his broadband completely. Needing to defend your home broadband against members of your family is crazy.
Re:Good job France! (Score:5, Insightful)
France, out of nowhere, is suddenly showing surprising competitiveness in the "Passing dumbass laws so the rest of the world can see what a bad idea they are" department.
doesn't sound quite as dumbass as fining him 2 345 423 dollars for it.
150e doesn't cover the expenses generated by the proceedings though.. so I guess it's true french.
Re:No, NOT a troll (Score:0, Insightful)
You are a troll, bitch. I hope you get cock slapped and butt fucked tonight after being roofied.
Re:Keep the woman in line? (Score:3, Insightful)
Prisons have free Internet access, don't they? I wonder what happens if someone downloads music while incarcerated....
Re:No, NOT a troll (Score:5, Insightful)
it's not a troll to tell someone that advocating violence against women is wrong.
The problem is that you have made the leap from telling a joke about domestic violence to seriously advocating violence against women. That is a flawed argument. People make jokes about all sorts of subject, but it doesn't mean that they are making serious comment about the issue. For example:
Q: What does NASA stand for?
A: Need Another Seven Astronauts
Does anyone who tells this joke really advocate murdering astronauts, or blowing up space shuttles? No. It is just using a tragic event for shock value. Mel Brooks once said "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die". That is basis of a lot of comedy. It is precisely what is happening when people laugh at the Darwin awards.
Here's another one.
Q: What's the biggest difference between 9/11 and the Oklahoma City Bombing?
A: Foreigners once again prove they can do it better and more efficiently.
Is that joke OK? If so, why is a joke about hurting one person not OK? If it is not OK, what is? Perhaps you could provide a list of the acceptable topics for jokes. Or maybe you think we should just eliminate humour completely?
On the same topic as above, let's have a go at another group of vulnerable people:
Q: Why didn't Superman stop the planes from hitting the Trade Towers?
A: Because he's a quadriplegic!
It is a shame that it wasn't Linda Carter who broke her neck, because we could have added a sexist element to that joke too. If there was such a thing as a black, female superhero then we could have had the entire set, but given that female superheros must show 90% skin then it is obvious why there are no black ones. They would use up too much ink!
I seem to be going further off topic, but I hope you get my point. A joke isn't real. You can always tell comedy that tries to have a PC message, because it tends not to be funny. The best thing to do if you belong to of a group that is the butt of a joke is to just ignore it. Irish people do it, blondes do it. Even Australians do it (to their sheep). I say that last one as an Australian. Here is what I am talking about:
A ventriloquist visiting Australia walks into a small outback village and sees a local sitting on his porch patting his dog. He figures he'll have a little fun, so he says to the Aussie: "Hey, mind if I talk to your dog?" ...?! )
Aussie: "The dog doesn't talk, stupid!"
Ventriloquist: "Hello dog, how's it going mate?"
Dog: "Doin' all right."
Aussie: (look of extreme shock)
Ventriloquist: "Is this your owner?"
Dog: "Yep"
Ventriloquist: "How does he treat you?"
Dog: "Good. Walks me twice a day, feeds me well and takes me to the lake once a week to play."
Aussie: (
Ventriloquist: "Mind if I talk to your horse? "
Aussie: "Uhhh..."
Ventriloquist: "Hey horse, how's it going?"
Horse: "Cool"
Ventriloquist: "Is this your owner?"
Horse: "Yep"
Ventriloquist: How does he treat you?
Horse: "Pretty good. He rides me regularly, brushes me down often and keeps me in a nice warm barn."
Ventriloquist: "Mind if I talk to your sheep?"
Aussie: (in a panic) "The sheep's a liar!!!"
My sheep and I had a really good laugh at that one!
Re:Good job France! (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem, of course, is that the rich are the entrepreneurs. That's how they become rich in the first place. The other problem, of course, will be the need to kick those awesome entrepreneurs you speak so hopefully of out of the country once they commit the sin of actually making some money and magically morph into one of the damn dirty rich people.
Re:Good job France! (Score:2, Insightful)
" the rich are the entrepreneurs"
Not quite true for 2 reasons.
The first is that the means of becoming or being rich aren't necessarily entrepreneurial. Corporations demonstrate this every day by enjoying government protection from having to actually serve the market. These types are not entrepreneurial at all.
The second reason is in your own claim. 'That's how they become rich in the first place'. This necessarily implies existence of entrepreneurs that are not rich. This fact is overlooked(particular by the left leaning members of society) when it comes to classifying 'the rich' as some impenetrable unchanging group. You can see this a lot when people cite figures like 'the top 1% rich have x percent of all wealth now, up from y', ignoring the fact that people enter and exit the category at a high frequency. This is not some non-human entity constantly growing a larger pile of money each year. These are individuals gaining and losing fortunes in the marketplace.
So, there is a difference between the rich and entrepreneurs. The overlap is still there for sure, but it dwindles more and more as creation and cooperation lose ground as the means of getting wealth in favor of other means like theft and coercion.