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French Flip Flop Again On File Sharing

Surprises

from the make-up-your-minds dept

Thu, Mar 9th 2006 3:40am — Mike Masnick
Earlier this week, it looked like French politicians had given in to the recording industry and ditched their proposal to basically legalize file-sharing in France. However, it would appear that a public outcry has made the government reverse course once again and bring back an amendment with a global license that would allow file sharing. The article is a little short on some of the details, but it also notes the new amendment would strengthen copy protection technology (probably by making circumvention illegal), by basically saying that fair use is no excuse to break copy protection.
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15 Comments

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  • identicon
    Mike, 9 Mar 2006 @ 5:06am

    No Subject Given

    Porn!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Antimatter, 9 Mar 2006 @ 5:48am

    Government

    There appears to be all kinds of good and bad in this proposal. What surprised me the most, though, was the fact that "a public outcry" caused them to change course. Living in the USA, I'm not used to the government working for (or even listening to) the people. Maybe our government can take look across the Atlantic and see what they should be trying to do over here.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Shoal Creek, 9 Mar 2006 @ 6:31am

      Re: Government

      Yea, it's pretty bad when one government that professes to be a socialist republic is more responsive to hearing outcries that freedom is violated than one that claims to be a freedoms-based constitutional republic.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Alex (profile), 9 Mar 2006 @ 11:49am

        Re: Government

        pretty bad when one government that professes to be a socialist republic


        The current French government is right of centre (both the President and Parliament are conservative), although in the US its policies would probably still be thought of as fairly "liberal" (American sense --- in France "liberal" is a term of abuse to mean extreme supporter of the free-market).

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 9 Mar 2006 @ 11:08pm

          Re: Government

          Extreme supporter of a free market? Liberal?

          It's a funny world, isn't it? Extreme supporters (in theory) in the US would be called conservative, or at least republican.

          Of course, theory gives way to their true ways, which is crony capitalism.. at least, for some of the party, but thankfully not all.

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Lazy Ghost, 9 Mar 2006 @ 6:35am

      Re: Government

      Actually, a "public outcry" would cause a change in course... it just has to be an election year!

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Andrew Strasser, 9 Mar 2006 @ 7:40am

      Re: Government

      Well the people burn cars there they just figure that since we are smart enough not to destroy our own things we're dumb enough to keep letting them rough us around. The just haven't yet realized that in the long run most Politicians who wind up in the mass majority's way get run over. Sometimes literally...

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      dorpus, 9 Mar 2006 @ 7:46am

      Re: Government

      Americans consider themselves an optimistic people, but they make some rather pessimistic assumptions in espousing the right to bear arms.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Neonghost, 9 Mar 2006 @ 11:06pm

      Re: Government

      The french will surrender to anything, including themselves. This isn't the poloticions listening, it's them wetting their pants at the sound of jack boots.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    discojohnson, 9 Mar 2006 @ 7:28am

    legal protection

    i think that the law is being pounded from both sides, making it more of a fair trade than it would come to be in the states. FTA, "The latest draft lightens the penalties for those caught pirating music or movies online" while at the same time "it also strengthens legal protection for anti-copy technologies known as DRMs, shielding them from challenges under French laws that grant consumers the right to make copies of music and film for private use." sounds pretty fair to me, from a each-side giving some viewpoint. the other viewpoint, however, is what are the ways in which the protection was strengthened?--and what will this new bill negate from the current fair use laws?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jobe, 11 Mar 2006 @ 2:15am

    Hopefully it will pass, and maybe the recording industry will see that they need to change there business model.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Sal, 12 Mar 2006 @ 3:16pm

    DRM requirements

    I read in another article on this topic that another part of the legislative reform is to require online music stores (ie. Apple and other Windows based stores) to ensure their DRM will work on all devices which would be an unbelievably nice change... wish we could have that in Australia - here all Windows based stores only allow 2 CDs to be burnt and 2 decives to be used for each purchase where as the Apple DIM allows for 5 computers to be used and unlimited CDs to be burnt... guess the Windows based stores would have to alter their DRM to allow greater uses or face market backlash

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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