France vows to not surrender to pirates

[Fishu]

France plans to cut off internet pirates

Internet users in France who download music and films without paying for them could find their web access shut down by a government body, under a ground-breaking industry agreement backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The plan, which Mr Sarkozy is to endorse in a speech on Friday, will put France at the forefront of the battle against internet piracy with a three-strikes-and-you-are-out policy against repeat offenders.

The proposed enforcement body would use information collected by internet service providers on their high_volume users to detect illegal file-sharing. Persistent offenders would be cautioned but could see their internet accounts suspended or terminated if they ignored as few as two warnings.

Not long ago many envied the french for slapping the copyright industry in the face by banning DRM and so on forth. Now it seems like the french are getting a hard kick in the groins by the humiliated industry. Of course in exchange they are getting copyrighted material without DRM and the delay of DVD release is dropped from 7½ months to 6 months. Somewhat poor deal all in all.

However, the ultimate question remains, will the french government surrender to the pirates and continue the tradition? To me it seems like the government has overtaken a much bigger task than beating the nazis, even though they are the ones on the attack.

I wonder when the copyright laws will be redefined for the sake of us all. Instead it looks like our civil liberties will be redefined first - one step at a time.

The funny thing is that they claim the pirates are destroying the culture. I don't know anything else that has had such a great positive impact on the culture in the past 25 years than Internet and the piracy brought with it. The piracy has enabled people to try out very different types of products of culture than just the one brought to them by the industry. Internet alone wouldn't have achieved it, not if the industry would've had their word on the spread of culture. Youtube is a prime example of a culture that couldn't have existed if people would've obeyed the copyright laws up the letter. Culture is defined by the people.

[moot]

That industry's been ****in people over so much for so long, that pirates ****ing it over a little less seem like the good guys.

[Shuckins]

When the first version of Napster came out, I was ecstatic.  It allowed me to find older songs that were no longer available through normal, commercial venues....except through long, tedious, and expensive efforts on my part.  Expensive to the tune of hundreds of dollars, perhaps thousands, to find songs on tapes that would include multitudes of other songs which I have absolutely no interest in acquiring.

I've got no interest in downloading recent musical releases, or dvds either for that matter.  

If the music industry was willing to compromise to some extent with those who simply want the ability to acquire lots of songs without spending a small fortune I would be more sympathetic to their cause.  Since they're showing no signs of trying to meet the opposition halfway....a pox on 'em.

Here's hoping the French government comes to its' senses.

[Dago]

Originally posted by Fishu
France plans to cut off internet pirates

 To me it seems like the government has overtaken a much bigger task than beating the nazis, even though they are the ones on the attack.

If you will remember, they couldn't do that.

[Maverick]

Meh, big fat hairy deal, france on the pirate attack. Sounds nice but likely to be lots of flash and thunder and no real effect. Easy to download without risking your internet account. Simply find an unlocked wifi hot spot and download. You can also use a public terminal and do the same. Don't they have better things to concentrate on than this????