Nicolas Sarkozy Caught Mass 'Pirating' DVDs; Time To Kick Him Off The Internet

from the see-ya-later-nicky dept

Fri, Oct 9th 2009 5:40am — Mike Masnick

Why is it always the adamant defenders of silly policies like kicking people off the internet for copyright infringement who are later found to be mass infringers themselves? French President Nicolas Sarkozy, of course, was the first major politician to support the concept of kicking people off the internet for copyright infringement (more commonly called a "three strikes" rule). He took credit for coming up with the idea originally nearly two years ago, and pushed very hard for the law -- which eventually passed but was then tossed out as unconstitutional in France. Sarkozy still stood by it and helped bring back a revised version.

Of course, in the middle of all this, there was a bit of irony in that Sarkozy was caught using music without authorization in some online videos, for which he paid a €30,000 fine. Of course, it now appears that may have just been the tip of the iceberg. Boing Boing points us to the news that Sarkozy's administration has been caught mass "pirating" DVDs of a documentary about Sarkozy. The publisher of the documentary only made 50 copies. Sarkozy's "audiovisual services" group happened to make itself another 400 without permission -- even replacing the name of the original publisher on the cover.

Once again, this should be a "teachable moment," to point out to Sarkozy and other supporters of such plans to kick people off the internet that the issue isn't quite so simple after all. When you're on the other side, sometimes it seems perfectly natural to make a copy of something, without even realizing it's potentially infringing. Unfortunately, why do I get the feeling that Sarkozy won't change his stance one bit -- or even recognize the irony of the situation?

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Filed Under: copyright, dvds, france, nicolas sarkozy, piracy

45 Comments

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Ed Woychowsky, 9 Oct 2009 @ 5:57am

Sarkozy
To quote William Shakespeare, "Hoist with his own petard."

Kick him off the internet.
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Rabbit80, 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:01am

Re: Sarkozy
and fine him 50000 euro for each infringing copy!
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:05am

Because
Unfortunately, why do I get the feeling that Sarkozy won't change his stance one bit -- or even recognize the irony of the situation?

Because that's not what his corporate overlords are paying him for. They are paying him to pass laws that defy common sense no matter what era in time you are from.
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imbrucy (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:09am

Re: Re: Sarkozy
I agree. I think a personal fine of 20,000,000 Euros should probably be enough to remove all the money he received from his corporate overlords.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:19am

An answer from inside the Helmet:
"Why is it always the adamant defenders of silly policies like kicking people off the internet for copyright infringement who are later found to be mass infringers themselves?"

Uh, well, I usually like to go off on massive diatribes with tons of quotes and so forth, but this one can be answered simply:

Because most of them are politicians and politicians as a rule are absolutely 100% mega full of shit.

Next question, please....
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Mechwarrior, 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:37am

Most laws dont apply to French politicians,though.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:45am

In my experience, politicians never seem to notice that laws also apply to them. Didn't know that that's actually true in France. Gaming the system is easy. If you make the laws, why make them apply to you? For instance, where I live a member of congress has a limited set of driving rules applying to them (much like ambulances and police cars do, but it makes sense for ambulances and police cars).
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 6:48am

because thats not the problem
The problem of P2P is not the copyright infringement is that everybody, anybody can do it so the distribution of information and art is not controllable anymore. The editor-distribution music companies want the control to gain money from the scarcity created by the control and the politician want to control it because thats what all politician want control. Imagine the mess if the politician would have to explain themselves not only to other politician and a couple of journalist but to everybody with a internet conection
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maclizard (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:08am

this isn't innocent infringment
While I agree that people infringe without meaning to all the time, this is different. He knowing copied a DVD 400 times AND removed production credit from the case. This is clearly a criminal act.
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RD, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:16am

Yes, but..
While this is a very worthy revelation about a two-bit hypocrite, this is actually not as much about "piracy" as it is counterfeiting. Yes, he probably "pirated" the source, but once you step out of just file-sharing and go into production, and even removing/changing credits on the covers, you have moved beyond simple infringement into a REAL criminal arena. I would venture to say that counterfeiting is a far worse crime than sharing. Of course, copyright maximalists will disagree, and say that "if it werent for piracy!" etc. being the indoctrined sheep they are.
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Bryan, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:16am

He will claim he did not know and some poor little guy will have to take the fall for him.
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Designerfx (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:17am

Re: Re: Re: Sarkozy
he'd probably use taxpayer money to pay for it in an indirect fashion.

coming up with 30 thou euro and clearly not even batting an eye is a ton of money.
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spaceman spiff, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:17am

Taking the hipocritic oath seriously
"Unfortunately, why do I get the feeling that Sarkozy won't change his stance one bit -- or even recognize the irony of the situation?"

Because he is a politician (liar), has no ethics (sleazeball), and takes the hipocritic oath he swore to when he first ran for public office quite seriously...
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Michael Lockyear, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:18am

He should resign...the world should boycott Belgium until he does.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:23am

Unfortunately, why do I get the feeling that Sarkozy won't change his stance one bit -- or even recognize the irony of the situation?

Because he's French and the leader of one of the G8.
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JP_Fife, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:27am

Lily, Sarkozy, wonder who's next?

Michael Lockyear ... eh, he's French.
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Shuryno, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:28am

Kick him off the planet...

No soup for you!
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Eponymous Coward, AKA Doug (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:30am

Re:
Um, he's French. Leave Belgium alone, they make wonderful beer.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:32am

Re: Because he's French and the leader of one of the G8.
Yeah, because we all know that an American President would change his stance and admit doing wrong...
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Free Capitalist (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:34am

Re:
He should resign...the world should boycott Belgium until he does

Intentional or no, that IS quite funny. For the US man on the street Belgium is the "waffle capital of the world". While in Europe Belgium faces the same sort of unreasonable scorn as do rural states and Florida here in the U.S.

Of course, maybe you meant "boycott the EU (Brussles)", which is also an interesting concept... bring pressure from his "peers".
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JP_Fife, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:42am

Re: Re:
I've changed my mind, I'm with Michael on this one: Boycott Belgium until Sarkozy resigns from the German Parliament. And while we're at it let's ask the Dutch to send soldiers into the Netherlands and drive out the invaders from Holland.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:45am

He cannot be accused to anything while he is president. So he has green lights to keep pirating and distributing illegal copies without fear of anything:

Article 67 : The President of The Republic is not responsable for acts accomplised in this quality, [...].
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Sheinen, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:47am

What a prick!

The funniest thing is that if they'd produced the documentary themselves and stuck it on a p2p network it would have got far more views anyway!
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Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:47am

Re: Yes, but..
Even in the eyes of the MPAA, RIAA and their international counterparts, "piracy" isn't just about copying things online, that's just the latest iteration. This guy isn't just a pirate because he copied the movie, he took the next step and took credit for the movie.

He didn't step out of the piracy arena by stepping into the criminal arena, he stepped further into the piracy arena while stepping into the criminal arena (they overlap).

Even if copyright was limited back to the way it was, this guy would still be slammed by it.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 7:59am

Kick'em off the World Wide EARTH!
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Rabbit80, 9 Oct 2009 @ 8:00am

Re: An answer from inside the Helmet:
"Why is it always the adamant defenders of silly policies like kicking people off the internet for copyright infringement who are later found to be mass infringers themselves?"

Because they see copyright as a fence - with us at one side and them at the other. The copyright laws don't apply on "their" side of the fence unless they are in their favour!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 8:02am

Re: Re: An answer from inside the Helmet:
yup, If anyone else pirates it , it loses its vAlue to them!

Like I said,

Kick'em off the World Wide EARTH!
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 8:02am

Ah, you funny US americans with your canadian tacos.
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 8:14am

Why kick him off the internet? Did they do this on the internet?

Mike REEEEEEEACHES again.
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PRMan, 9 Oct 2009 @ 9:12am

That's only 2 strikes...
But on the next strike, I expect the hacker communities of the world to join together to DDOS the French president's internet connection....
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Anonymous Coward, 9 Oct 2009 @ 9:29am

Re:
Look, up in the sky, over there, above your head, it's the point!
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Sheinen, 9 Oct 2009 @ 9:41am

Re:
Yeah, and you reeeeeeach around on your mum
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nasch (profile), 9 Oct 2009 @ 12:05pm

Re:
Good point. How did they distribute these then, by mail? Fine, he should not be allowed to use the mail anymore, neither sending nor receiving. Or was it by truck? OK, no more automobiles for Sarkozy, he can bike or take the subway.
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clay, 9 Oct 2009 @ 2:09pm

The people ought to make money with information have invested interest to shackle down the internet. The evil-doers.
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Thomas, 9 Oct 2009 @ 2:29pm

If you kick him off the internet then in turn he could kick you off the internet
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Michael Lockyear, 10 Oct 2009 @ 6:39am

Re: Re:
Intentional!
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Michael Lockyear, 10 Oct 2009 @ 6:55am

Re: Re: Re:
Searched my house for Belgian, French or German products I could toss on to the bonfire of my disgust...sadly couldn't find any (what DO these guys do for money?)...I really do hope that the Scots never do or say anything stupid as I would really hate to boycott their fine exports :)
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Oct 2009 @ 10:41am

De minis infringement, but if it makes people feel better making a mountain out of a molehill then so be it.
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Internet Soldier, 10 Oct 2009 @ 2:50pm

Im A Pirate
There is NO way in stopping it
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dumb texan, 11 Oct 2009 @ 11:39am

People, let's boycott Uganda till Nikolia pays fines for what he did. Lol
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Oct 2009 @ 3:32pm

Wait, I have to ask this question:

Sarkozy (actually, someone in an office somewhere near his) makes 300 copies of something, and you guys are calling out the hit squads.

Yet, many of the people posting here have put movies, music, and whatnot that they don't own the rights to on the internet, where perhaps millions of people have copied and profited from it.

Don't you think maybe you should call the hit squads on yourself first?
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Mike Masnick (profile), 12 Oct 2009 @ 1:51am

Re:

Yet, many of the people posting here have put movies, music, and whatnot that they don't own the rights to on the internet, where perhaps millions of people have copied and profited from it.

Well, first, I haven't done any of that... but the point isn't that making copies is bad. The point is that if you're going to claim making copies is bad and then pass laws that go against those who make copies... and then it turns out that you are illegally making copies, shouldn't those laws apply to you first?

I would think that was sorta common sense. The people aren't arguing that the "hit squads" are a good thing. They're just using them to show the hypocrisy from Sarkozy.
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Sheesh, 12 Oct 2009 @ 10:14am

IP law in a new age
It's time to revisit IP law. I'm reusing the same words that someone else created. I have a quote in my e-mail sig, who should I talk to about paying royalties? I just downloaded Audacity and edited a nice ringtone for my phone. I used a few seconds of Beatles music, and a few seconds of Ella Fitzgerald music. I'm not going to sell ringtones, is this personal use?

Where is the line drawn? Protection has mutated to control. It's time to overhaul IP law from the ground up, else the present outdated mindset loses control because they refuse to adapt. When communication is available, information will flow. Intellectual property law will change, whether done in a controlled fashion, or having been forced to change because of the things that are reasonable and possible in the modern age of communication.
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Pierre, 27 Oct 2009 @ 8:25am

French Gov. to protect (rich) PIRATES
GROUPAMA was caught in a software PIRACY case of $200m and has made an unofficial affidavit (claiming that it was not guilty) to divert BEFTI investigators from the evidences officially collected one month ago at a different office.

In its affidavit, GROUPAMA argued that bank secrecy entitled it to limit the scope of Police investigations to a building that was not the place where evidences about the infraction were officially collected.

After the fraud was discovered and denounced by the victim, as GROUPAMA managed to have the General Prosecutor of Paris to state that Police was 'right' to ignore the criminal file and focus only on the irrelevant information provided by GROUPAMA itself, there is room for serious doubts in the way that affair was conducted.

As a matter of facts, FINAMA and GROUPAMA have reported false information to the markets regarding their own accounts (where the fraud describbed below has never been reported).

This unfortunate event is more than likely to compromize the confidence ratings of French (bank and insurance) regulated markets on the proven basis that the numbers cannot be trusted.

All the details, including the General Prosecutor reply, the BEFTI investigation file and the unofficial affidavit cooked by GROUPAMA have been made publicly available:

http://remoteanything.com/archives/groupama.pdf
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Life Fitness Treadmill, 18 Dec 2010 @ 6:26pm

Re: Sarkozy
This thing should not be tolerated. People in the internet should learn to practice being responsible and disciplined.
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