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French P2P Campaign Floundering
March 15, 2006
The reported failure of the campaign to introduce a flat rate “global licence” for filesharing in France follows after months of hard work by P2P activists amidst widespread speculation.The issue of filesharing in France was thrown into sharp focus last December when the Audiosurfers Association (l’ Association Des Audionautes or ADA) dramatically tabled a parliamentary amendment that would effectively allow downloading.
Led by 17 year old Aziz Ridouan of ADA, an amendment drafted with the help of Socialist opposition MP Patrick Bloche called for internet users to be allowed to download as much material as they want in exchange for a nominal monthly fee of around €12, known as a global licence.
With the government intending to introduce far heavier penalties as a part of their plans to implement the EUCD following years of delay, timing played an important part in Ridouan’s strategy. The assembly being heavily depleted by MPs who had already started their extended Christmas recess, the amendment was approved by 28 of the 30 possible votes.
Boasting 6,000 members, ADA claims to be the voice of more than 12 million filesharers who use P2P networks in France, a statistic that is hard to verify. "It's not piracy simply to download to listen to music in new formats. The very principle of culture is to share it" proclaimed ADA President, Aziz Ridouan.
The SNEP, the Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique – the French equivalent of the RIAA – fell back on predictable comparisons of filesharing with shoplifting in condemnation of the proposed amendment, saying that industry had been deprived of millions of euros every year because of filesharing.
December’s vote forced the government to rethink its plans, sparking a two month consultation with recording industry representatives and internet user groups to try to reach some form of compromise. ADA reported receiving 13,000 signatures from musicians supporting their campaign and public interest has been described as overwhelming, with even the highly influential Economic and Social Council (who advise government) arguing that P2P exchanges should be made legal.
The government remained vehemently opposed to the concept of a global license throughout, despite being widely reported as having conceded that private copying should be legalized. After revising their original plans to introduce draconian measures against those caught infringing down to a modest statutory penalty of €38 per file for small scale offenders, the concept of global licensing has reportedly now been rejected altogether by the conservative government.
Many could be forgiven for thinking that the modest scale of this statutory penalty represents a partial victory for filesharers, and doubtless this will be claimed by their supporters. However, from legal and human rights perspectives, this adoption of US style fixed penalty legislation is little short of catastrophic.
Statutory penalties make it unnecessary for the plaintiff (in this case the recording industries) to prove that they have actually suffered a specific loss as a consequence of any breach of copyright. This lightens the burden on the recording industries substantially, resulting in the likelihood of far higher numbers of filesharers being taken to court. Whilst the concept of such legislation has to be approved at a parliamentary level, once that has been done, the fixed penalties themselves can be reviewed (in other words, dramatically increased) without further reference to politicians.
Most significantly of all, the introduction of a statutory penalty system broadens the scope for action against secondary infringements, previously regarded as a relatively minor issue. This means that not only is the initial copying of copyright material an infringement, but also the same will now apply in equal measures to each subsequent copy. This is likely to prove an even greater incentive to the recording industries to pursue filesharers.
Conflicting reports have been slowly leaking out to the public regarding the contentious issue of DRM. It has been reported that a further proposal is to be debated which could allow consumers to legally use software that converts digital content into any format, thus meaning that iTunes, for example, could not be restricted to Apple hardware. The outcome of such a debate is by no means certain, inasmuch that compliance with the EUCD necessitates the introduction of legislation prohibiting the circumvention of copy protection mechanisms by all European member states.
Aziz Ridouan of the ADA was not responding to any telephone calls made to his published numbers, and was equally unresponsive to our emails. There is already widespread concern that his ill feted campaign may well have damaged the prospects of any other European countries adopting a flat fee licensing approach to filesharing as well as opening the floodgates to the wholesale adoption of statutory penalties.
The political debate rumbles on in the meantime, with issues regarding fair use exclusions and other aspects yet to be fully discussed, and a final vote on the draft legislation is expected to take place in the course of the next week.
The future of filesharing in France looks decidedly bleaker as a consequence of the issue being politically exploited by the opposition parties, which in turn is likely to result in the whole issue of filesharing being driven even further underground.
Edit: For the record, I have since (only Sunday 3/19) learned that Aziz had some problems translating our communications into French. We shall be following this article up with further information as the process continues
Statutory penalties make it unnecessary for the plaintiff (in this case the recording industries) to prove that they have actually suffered a specific loss as a consequence of any breach of copyright. This lightens the burden on the recording industries substantially, resulting in the likelihood of far higher numbers of filesharers being taken to court. Whilst the concept of such legislation has to be approved at a parliamentary level, once that has been done, the fixed penalties themselves can be reviewed (in other words, dramatically increased) without further reference to politicians.
Most significantly of all, the introduction of a statutory penalty system broadens the scope for action against secondary infringements, previously regarded as a relatively minor issue. This means that not only is the initial copying of copyright material an infringement, but also the same will now apply in equal measures to each subsequent copy. This is likely to prove an even greater incentive to the recording industries to pursue filesharers.
Conflicting reports have been slowly leaking out to the public regarding the contentious issue of DRM. It has been reported that a further proposal is to be debated which could allow consumers to legally use software that converts digital content into any format, thus meaning that iTunes, for example, could not be restricted to Apple hardware. The outcome of such a debate is by no means certain, inasmuch that compliance with the EUCD necessitates the introduction of legislation prohibiting the circumvention of copy protection mechanisms by all European member states.
Aziz Ridouan of the ADA was not responding to any telephone calls made to his published numbers, and was equally unresponsive to our emails. There is already widespread concern that his ill feted campaign may well have damaged the prospects of any other European countries adopting a flat fee licensing approach to filesharing as well as opening the floodgates to the wholesale adoption of statutory penalties.
The political debate rumbles on in the meantime, with issues regarding fair use exclusions and other aspects yet to be fully discussed, and a final vote on the draft legislation is expected to take place in the course of the next week.
The future of filesharing in France looks decidedly bleaker as a consequence of the issue being politically exploited by the opposition parties, which in turn is likely to result in the whole issue of filesharing being driven even further underground.
Edit: For the record, I have since (only Sunday 3/19) learned that Aziz had some problems translating our communications into French. We shall be following this article up with further information as the process continues
This story is filed in these Slyck News categories
File-Sharing/P2P Related :: International
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