French lawmakers support file sharing

French lawmakers have shocked the rest of Europe today by endorsing amendments to legislation that was designed to fight digital piracy. Instead, the amendments would make the sharing of copyrighted music and movies online completely legal if a user was willing to pay a monthly royalty fee of only a few euros. Under the original proposals, those caught pirating copyrighted material would have faced $360,000 in fines and up to three years in jail.

As you would guess would happen, French actors and musicians have condemned the vote. "To legalize the downloading of our music, almost free of charge, is to kill our work," rocker Johnny Hallyday said in a statement. The actors' and musicians' branch of France's largest trade union, the CFDT, said the plan "would mean the death of our country's music and audiovisual industries." Bernard Miyet, president of the French music composers' and publishers' organization SACEM said it amounted to a "Sovietization" of the arts.

"You're talking about an administered price, set by a commission without regard to the music and film economy," he added. However, consumer group UFC-Que Choisir, applauded the vote saying it would create a "new area of freedom allowing Internet users access to cultural diversity and fair payment for creators." The final lower-house vote is not expected until after Jan. 17, when deputies return from their winter break. The bill requires only one further vote in the Senate to become law.

Sources:
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Thanks to dkbaked for News Submission.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 22 Dec 2005 14:54

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29 comments

neo1000

Now that`s working for the people.

22.12.2005 17:38 #1

Spoilage

WAH WAH, I wont get millions of dollars cuz I sing a stupid song, WAH WAH.
Cry your eyes out bitch. This is the new economy. Live with it. Go tour the country to make money. Its called working for a living.

22.12.2005 18:08 #2

evilh0ly

now that government's run by the people now by big multination corporation it's call for a celebration.

22.12.2005 19:06 #3

nonoitall

France is cool.

22.12.2005 19:12 #4

dubire

fair play to the french they stand up for what is best for there people unlike the usa where all the goverment has been bought. these artists should be made aware take what your given or people will and now are just taking it for free

Ireland

22.12.2005 23:12 #5

gtnheimer

First of all, this law has no chance of passing when all 577 of France's lower house parliment members return in January, most of which are of the government which supports the large penalties and jailtime for pirating copyrighted material.

This was more of a stick-it-to-the-man vote, which barely passed 30-28. However, it was certainly a warranted protest as the previously proposed DADVSI bill would idiotically criminalize any software that could be used to share copyrighted material and would virtually eliminate well-established fair-use laws, criminalizing back-up and reproduction of purchased material for private use.

Both laws are in no way fair, as one grossly inhibits open-source and independent software development and personal rights and the other allows for unbridled sharing of (let's not call it "intellectual") "creative" property for a pitiful about 8.50$ US a month royalty fee for admitted sharers.

As is the norm, moderation appears to be the solution. However, copyright holders will never stop complaining about file sharing, and though file-sharers claim to be willing to pay if the entertainment industry were only up to date with there technological needs, most are just freeloaders who are going to keep downloading for free until capitalism finally prevails.

Even with the intro of iTunes, Rhapsody, etc., sharers still complain of having to buy an album for a few songs(eliminated by online track purchasing) and artists complain about not recieving enough from online sales, mostly because only a few of their songs get downloaded. Also, complaints about the high prices of poor quality of songs and albums are illogical, because if they charge too much, no one will buy and the artist won't survive. If you pirate a song that is apparently too crappy for your 99 cence, you're only perpetuating the arguement against p2p as a bunch of freeloading hipocrits.

The seemingly feasable solution would be to offer consumers legal downloads of music and movies without any copy protection crap on it (which only angers customers and can be easily cracked anyways). Unfortunately, most p2p users are just using p2p because it provides free entertainment, so the real problem lies in the moral fiber of the average person, which when hidden behind a lucrative IP address apparently degrades, a sad commentary on the human race. On the same note, the record labels and studios won't even tolerate personal backups. Because the bigwig side won't reckognize personal rights and the p2p mass won't pay for what isn't rightfully theirs, no end to this battle is in sight and it will certainly yeild more arrests, fines, and legislative and judicial battles before it is ever settled.

23.12.2005 00:20 #6

rcaudwell

Never underestimate the lengths the French Government will go to to p!ss of the USA
Suprised there isn`t a clause in this bill to force people to download a certain percentage of french language content though!!!

23.12.2005 00:24 #7

tranquash

Well said Spoilage.

23.12.2005 10:27 #8

ireland

A MUST READ AND VERY HOT READ, Slyck interviews the MPAA ***(Texas nails Sony BMG. Again)*** P2p file sharing is legal, says France,

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/274654

23.12.2005 11:18 #9

dude845

lol go france.

23.12.2005 11:39 #10

Chris1000

$8.50 a month is better than nothing! Frankly, once you added up that $8.50 x 12 months x 80 million file-sharers (if the other countries got into the act), that's another 9.6 billion dollars going into the pockets of the people who make the products.
That is MORE than enought money to compensate them for a little filesharing, considering that most of the people who fileshare, listen or use something once, find out they don't like it, and delete it off their hard drives.

23.12.2005 18:22 #11

MrSosa

i'm french so that's all good :-)

24.12.2005 03:48 #12

phantom22

FROGS RULE

well done i must say this is a new step forward considering all the problems suprnova and bittorrent are having! im so much happier now im goin to come live in france:P

24.12.2005 04:11 #13

sssharp

I believe that if a monthly charge is applied artist should cry with joy. Under the current situation they receive no money from filesharing. Receive a percentage or receive nothing, which side should they choose? It sounds very good for the future, but the true voting after the new year will kill the possibility because they will be persuaded by the big name companies.

24.12.2005 15:03 #14

sssharp

I would like to also say if people were charged a monthly fee to use the filesharing service that would drop it faster than lawsuits. People dont want to pay anything and a monthly fee will push more people away from it.

24.12.2005 15:14 #15

EWAT

Interesting but the puppets in the US Congress are at it again, without their brains recharged, which, of course is the norm for them:
See:

By Robert X. Cringely...

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20051222.html

Snippets:
...looking at H.R. 4569, the Digital Transition Content Security Act of 2005, which proves the point I've made many times over the years, that when it comes to technology, government doesn't really know what it is doing. H.R. 4569, which was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on December 16th, is intended to protect the intellectual property rights of movie studios by MAKING ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION ILLEGAL.

Under the Act as proposed, manufacturers will have one year after passage to stop making devices that convert analog signals like music and video into digital forms...

What this is about, then, isn't making it illegal to use a digital recorder to record from analog microphone. Heck, that would destroy the music industry. Congress's thinking (if we dare call it that -- I see no flashes of synapses firing)...

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20051222.html

...By Robert X. Cringely

But on the bright side, Christmas is over and perhaps, their wish was for a brain, as the scarecrow wished for on the Wizard of Oz and hopefully they received their brain.

25.12.2005 10:24 #16

dcalduk

I am so pleased that the French have stuck by the principals of fair play to file sharing,unlike the British government who bow and scrape to every european legislation however stupid and incompetent they may be.The French at least,appear to regard the EU parliament as it has become ,a posturing place for the British political correctness,followed with glee by other EU national leaders as a clever way of controlling the common herd whilst relieving them of the freedoms and won at a heavy cost by the common man.

27.12.2005 14:03 #17

rogerinfr

Now I live in France, EITHER the french govt misread the doc OR they have an ulterior motive. At the present there is a massive tax on all recordable material. Its a whole lot cheaper to buy it in the UK. I am guessing that they think they can jack up taxes somewhere. On PC's, hard drives, MP 3 players. This is not the way that the french govt normally play it!!

28.12.2005 03:59 #18

MrSosa

^^^co-sign

bonjour � toi cher compatriote!

28.12.2005 04:26 #19

britfin

At last a forward thinking government.

29.12.2005 08:39 #20

rogerinfr

After reading several times the "French connection", if I have gotten it right, the french govt slap a �15 tax per month on everybody with an internet connected computer!!
I think thats how I read it. Comments people please?

30.12.2005 04:20 #21

m_towell

It's about time the French did something right!

30.12.2005 21:15 #22

angeli15

go France!!! but what's with the monthly fee! i say go all the way free!!!

30.12.2005 21:46 #23

mistyguam

for all the crap that France has been through even by government hating on the USA, I have to admit, this is one of the best things I have heard.

*moving to France*

1.1.2006 02:57 #24

Quagm1r3

Go France!

1.1.2006 21:32 #25

rogerinfr

Hi OK I guess all you guys feel OK about the �15 a month what amounts to an Internet Tax..
So if you are on the net by whatever means you pay a fee of �15. Totally irrespective of whether you download music. at that rate its cheaper to buy CD's and get the music that way.
Roger

2.1.2006 04:46 #26

giddynar

I do not see any music or vidio companies going bankrupt, how can the lose so much money and stay profitable, are the so called artists??????? giving them money back, I do not think so.

11.2.2006 22:54 #27

winbro

I have a question??? What if you "illegally" download music material from France and live in Mexico, U.S.A., england or whatever - what happens then????

6.2.2007 10:43 #28

Dudley G (unverified)

This is the way society should progress!

Anyone over the age of 25 will be dead in ~60 years. Well before then file sharing will be legalised because this is what humanity wants.

Art for art, not art for cash! Merci mes amis!

21.5.2010 10:53 #29

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