French Courts File-Sharing Friendly, Too

from the sacre-bleu dept

Last week, the French parliament's proposal to legalize file-sharing looked to be moving ahead, but French courts are acting a little faster. The EFF reports that a court in Paris has ruled that file-sharing qualifies as legal "private copying" (Warning: annoying PDF file), dismissing the charges against a downloader, and following other courts in the country that had previously found downloading to fall under private copying. Things are running counter to the entertainment industry's wishes in the country -- nothing was really expected to come of the parliamentary action, but people are now taking it seriously. That plan will pay rightsholders from a flat monthly fee downloaders would pay. Rather than it be reluctantly imposed on them, record labels would be better off accepting the changing times and figured out how to adapt their business to meet them. Ah, look -- it's that pesky legislate or innovate dilemma again.
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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2006 @ 4:35pm

    No Subject Given

    You know your country is a bunch of cowards when the French are leading the charge...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Feb 2006 @ 5:41pm

    No Subject Given

    Cowards... how ironic! How really ironic is that... wow!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      gh, 7 Feb 2006 @ 5:50pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      Ironic? How ironic! Too bad no one knows what ironic means either!

      How ironic!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Raphael, 8 Feb 2006 @ 2:18am

    It is paid for already...

    There is already a tax on blank media (tape, CD, DVD) sold in France that goes (allegedly) to the rightholders... which, some are saying, makes the files sharing and copies legit and paid for.
    "Do not stop copying, sharing,... just give us money and we'll be all right" they said!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Dosquatch, 8 Feb 2006 @ 6:54am

      Re: It is paid for already...

      There is already a tax on blank media (tape, CD, DVD) sold in France

      In the US, we have the "DAT tax", which pays a "royalty" to labels and artists for each digital tape and/or player/recorder sold - even though precious few consumers ever bought equipment for home audio use. Usually DAT machines are used as (low to mid range) studio recorders. (Actually, the most common use of these tapes was for computer backups)

      The interesting thing is this: the act that imposed this "royalty" gives you the legal right to reproduce copyrighted material. Yes, this is United States law I'm talking about.

      This was eventually extended further to also cover blank VHS tapes, analog audio cassettes, and music CD-R (though not data CD-R), with the same provision that the royalties paid for the blank media means that any work copied to it, including copyrighted material, is legal, even to the point of that you can sell the copies you make. Legally.

      This is all because the MPAA and the RIAA lobbied for this to curtail potential losses from home copying. They seem to have conveniently forgotten all of this in launching their consumer-jihad.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 8 Feb 2006 @ 9:24am

        Re: It is paid for already...

        If you start with a legally purchased copy...

        An illegal download copies to a music CD-R is NOT legal. I don't see that people copying legally obtained music to music CD-R's has been the focus of the Jihad.

        And now I want to go vomit and then pummel myself for defending the RIAA.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Dosquatch, 8 Feb 2006 @ 10:29am

          Re: It is paid for already...

          An illegal download copies to a music CD-R is NOT legal.

          I don't see where it says that. I can borrow a copy from the guy next door (hypothetically) and burn a copy legally. That is allowed. The labels have their royalty, I have my copy, but not the original - that went back to the guy next door. How is borrowing a copy from the guy 2,000 miles away via MP3 so different? I still have my copy, Guy still has his original, label still has its money, the only difference is distance and a couple of computers.

          As I read it, royalty paid is royalty paid, and is paid for exactly this reason, by the RIAA's own lobbying.

          And now I want to go vomit and then pummel myself for defending the RIAA.

          I understand completely :-)

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Mikester, 8 Feb 2006 @ 12:39pm

        Re: It is paid for already...

        Sweet. We have this same tax in Canada - hopefully we can point to France as a case study should this go before the courts here.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Wizard Prang, 8 Feb 2006 @ 6:16am

    I don't like the French, but...

    ...the legislators in the US should sit up and take notice instead of allowing the RIAA to buy their souls...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Nilt, 8 Feb 2006 @ 8:27pm

    I wonder ...

    How likely is it that the French are doing this due to a perception that the recording industry is mostly "American"? Anyone else thought of that?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    J. E. F., 15 Jan 2009 @ 1:20am

    First, LOL! Second, ROFL! Third, LMAO!

    Moving to France. Can we start calling them French Fries again? I mean after this, French Cool Points went up in my book.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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