France proposes to cut off file sharing
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France proposes to cut off persistent internet pirates
By Ben Hall in Paris
Published: November 23 2007 02:00 | Last updated: November 23 2007 02:00
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 Nicolas Sarkozy, the president.
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The plan, which Mr Sarkozy is to endorse in a speech today, 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.
The proposals have been drawn up by an independent review headed by Denis -Olivennes, the chairman of Fnac, a French entertainment retailer.
The music and film industries, internet service providers and the government are all likely to sign up to the plan.
In exchange for the clampdown on illegal downloading, the music industry has agreed to make individual downloads of archive French material available on all types of players by dropping digital rights management protection.
The French film industry has agreed to release DVDs more quickly after a film's first cinema screening, reducing the delay from 7.5 months to 6 months.
However, consumer groups and, even, some of Mr Sarkozy's own members of parliament yesterday attacked the proposal for a new internet policeman as a threat to civil liberties.
UFC-Que Choisir, a consumer association, said the plans were "very harsh, potentially repressive, anti-economic and against the grain of the digital age". It pointed out that illegal downloading was already punishable by a prison term of up to three years.
Marc Le Fur and Alain Suguenot, both deputies from Mr Sarkozy's UMP party, said in a statement that they deplored the proposal to confer judicial -powers on an enforcement agency, saying the move "creates a truly exceptional jurisdiction for downloaders contravening the principle of equality before the law".
Mr Sarkozy has taken a strong stand against internet piracy, raising the issue during his election campaign and appointing Mr Olivennes to lead the review soon after becoming president.
The president will use his speech today to "underline his attachment to culture but also his wish to see artists live from their work and have their rights respected on new platforms", his spokesman said.
The music industry has campaigned for ISPs to take action against the illegal file-sharers who operate through their services.
The IFPI, a trade body for the global recording industry, said more than 50 per cent of all internet traffic was so-called peer-to-peer file-sharing, much of it -illegal.
The problem appears particularly acute in France because of the relatively high download speeds of its internet services.
Mr Olivennes this year highlighted the problem of illegal downloading in a book entitled Free is Theft, in which he argued that piracy stole funds from French culture by reducing the money raised by levies on cinema takings and pay-television.
The book accused ISPs of exploiting an abundance of pirated material on the web to recruit new subscribers. "It is a little like . . . big store chains putting out free stocks of stolen CDs and DVDs to attract new customers into their shops," he wrote.
Mr Olivennes appears now to have persuaded internet service providers to help the authorities police their own users more effectively.
To put in place the new enforcement body, the government would have to introduce legislation amending copyright, data protection, telecommunications and consumer protection laws, with a vote in parliament as soon as spring 2008.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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Several countries have already had this proposed by the music and movie industries. This idea would make the music and movie industries hugely more powerful than they already are. That's the same reason why more than a few countries already said no to the idea.
ISPs love the idea because they would get a huge profit increase due to lower amounts of internet traffic. This would also mean that there would be less incentive for them to upgrade their systems.
The proposals have been drawn up by an independent review headed by Denis -Olivennes, the chairman of Fnac, a French entertainment retailer.
Yes, independent of the gov, but not independent of the companies that would see huge personal profit gains. They have everything to gain and nothing to lose under this proposal.
You know you can fully trust their opinions. <sarcasm>> In exchange for the clampdown on illegal downloading, the music industry has agreed to make individual downloads of archive French material available on all types of players by dropping digital rights management protection.
Oh, so under their new proposal, they are willing to obey the "fair use" laws of France that the have refused to follow for several years. How fucking nice of them to finally be willing to follow the law. Seems a bit ironic, doesn't it.
There is also another problem. Ipod stuff will not play on MP3 players and vice versa, no matter what the music industry says. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs want it that way so they can make more profits. So this is a non starter, but it sounds good if you are brain dead.
The French film industry has agreed to release DVDs more quickly after a film's first cinema screening, reducing the delay from 7.5 months to 6 months.
How nice of them to give us the movies on dvd 1.5 months earlier. <rolleyes>Have they talked to the cable/satellite providers? They make huge profits from their "box office" type service and I'm sure they won't want to give any of that up. 1.5 months of lost income isn't gonna make them too happy.
Why not put Europe on the same time scale as the US?! That's why so many movies are pirated. A movie comes out in the US and takes 6+ months before Europe gets it. Having all countries getting the movie at the same time would help cut down on piracy. Even the movie industry has admitted that most movie downloads are due to the time gap for release between countries. Yet, like the stone age barbarians they are, they don't want to change their ways
Then of course there is the issue of things not being available in a certain country, but widely available in the rest of the world.
The BBC is renowned for this. The UK is still waiting for much of the BBC stuff to come out here and some things have even been banned in the UK by the BBC.
The Ab Fab christmas special "White Box" is banned in the UK, but the BBC will not tell us why. Oddly, they aired it twice when it originally came out years ago, but since banned it. The rest of the world has this but we can't.
Are You Being Served and Are You Being Served Again {aka Grace and Favour in the UK} have been fully released on dvd in the rest of the world several years ago, but the UK only has up to series 6 of Are you Being Served and none of Are You Being Served Again.
Keeping Up Appearances just finally got fully release in the UK, several years after the rest of the world already had it.
This is the case with most of the older classic British Sit-Coms or Brit-Coms as they have become known.
Then of course there is the huge cost of things in the UK vs many other countries. BBC dvds are much, much cheaper in the US than in the UK even at the old exchange rate {before the $ dropped}. We pay to produce it through our TV taxes and you guys get it for less than us.
Mr Sarkozy has taken a strong stand against internet piracy, raising the issue during his election campaign and appointing Mr Olivennes to lead the review soon after becoming president.
Of course he did. Most of his election campaign was funded by the industry he is now willing to give his country to.
The president will use his speech today to "underline his attachment to culture but also his wish to see artists live from their work and have their rights respected on new platforms", his spokesman said.
I'm not sure if he's lieing or too stupid to realize that this will never happen. The music industry {et al} take huge chunks of the profits and give extremely little to the artists.
This is why you see artist such as Prince give his albums away in newspapers with an ad against music industry greed. That's also why he changed his name to that symbol, so he could produce stuff on his own record label and get a decent return for his work.
Mr Olivennes this year highlighted the problem of illegal downloading in a book entitled Free is Theft, in which he argued that piracy stole funds from French culture by reducing the money raised by levies on cinema takings and pay-television.
So the head of the retail association isn't concerned with profits, just lost tax revenue.
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I wonder what would happen if all piracy stopped today and it was never a problem again. Would they still act as if it was still a huge problem so these organization can keep getting massive fee to "fight" piracy?!
I have a feeling it would be like when the gov wants to strip us of more of our civil rights, the make up terrorist scares so we won't feel so bad about losing our rights. Tony Blair made this an art form. I wonder if he gets royalties from it. :whistle:
See the quote below from the article makes my point;
To put in place the new enforcement body, the government would have to introduce legislation amending copyright, data protection, telecommunications and consumer protection laws, with a vote in parliament as soon as spring 2008.
Look at all the rights people would lose under this kind of new system.</rolleyes></sarcasm>
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It was leaked yesterday that the UK gov was planning this exact kind of thing.
The really sneaky thing is that the UK gov planned to force it into law without a vote in Parliament, using the "white paper" system.
NOTE: The "white paper" system is similar to Presidential Executive Orders in the US.
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I think there's too much division between MPs to allow something like this for the time being.
