The lower house of the French parliament voted to legalize peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing of movies and music via the Internet. It is a vote that is certain to reverberate around the globe and draw severe criticism from the nation's film and music industries as well as from actors and recording artists.
The vote has been called a revolt again Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres' draft legislation that would have established steep penalties for individuals convicted of pirating copyrighted materials with a fine of $360,000 and as much as three years of jail time. Several days prior to the matter being taken up on the floor of the parliament, consumer activists delivered a petition with 110,000 signatures criticizing the draft proposal to Vabres.
A small group of legislators attached two amendments to Vabres' bill to establish a monthly global licensing fee of 7 euros (around $8.50). The subscription charge would entitle users to unlimited downloads and legalize what most Western countries have heretofore considered a modern-day scourge. The amendment passed with a small majority, 30 to 28, with only 10 percent of the 577 assembly members actually present. The measure has yet to pass in the upper house.
"We are trying to bring the law up to date with reality," Patrick Bloche, a Socialist representative from Paris who co-authored the amendments, told the New York Times. "It is wrong to describe the eight million French people who have downloaded music from the Internet as delinquents."
Consumer Rights Movement
A consumer's right to make copies of music and videos for use privately is a cornerstone of European law. Content producers have faced an uphill legal battle in France for selling copyright-protected CDs and DVDs. In May 2005, Swedish Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom called for record companies to stop copyright-protecting their CDs. Bodstrom said that, if they refused, the government would make it illegal.
In February 2005, the Norwegian government introduced legislation that would make it legal for individuals to make a backup of a copyright-protected CD or DVD for personal use while at the same time making it illegal to convert those same songs into MP3s for transfer onto a digital-music device. The law passed after a majority of members altered the law to include conversions for transfer to MP3 players.
Here in the U.S., Virginia Congressman Rick Boucher (D) introduced a bill in 2002 that would ban or at least regulate the sale of copy-protected CDs. The proposal created a dust-up between Boucher and the

Recording Industry Association of America.
Dubbing Debate
There is nothing new about copying music or movies. Since before the days of double audio cassette decks, people have made copies of their favorite tunes for friends, said Mukul Krishna, a Frost & Sullivan analyst. The French parliament is cognizant of that and simply taking a practical approach to the problem, he added.
"If you look at what the French parliament is doing, they recognize that you can't do anything to stop people from making illegal copies," Krishna said. "What the parliament has said is that instead of no one getting anything [from these copies], we'll charge them $8.50."
With millions of people around the world participating in sharing files online, what seems like a relatively miniscule charge can quickly add up to a substantial amount of money. The question, Krishna said, is how the French delegates arrived at the $8.50 amount, how it will be disbursed, and how the law will apply to music and movies that are not products of France. It is unclear whether the French will divide the fee equally between content owners and creators or give it to the government.
"Whether they will be splitting royalties and how they will track downloads and payments are important questions the parliament will have to answer," Krishna said.
Unanswered Questions
Depending on how the government resolves those questions, popular artists might find themselves taking a loss while lesser-known independent artists benefit from the unrestricted access and exposure. "If I was a best-selling artist, I would be upset because that is a chunk of money that otherwise people would have spent on my album or seeing my movie," Krishna said. "If I'm an indie performer, I want my name out there so I can get a recording contract, so I would love this."
A final vote on the legislation has not been scheduled and is unlikely to take place until after January 17, 2006, when parliamentary members return from the winter holiday. The bill requires just one additional vote in the French Senate to become law according to the emergency procedure guidelines instituted by the parliament to comply with a 2001

European Union digital-piracy directive.
Krishna expects that the legislation will not pass because of the clout that celebrities, recording labels, and the European Union can bring to bear on legislators. If the government does not do due diligence in creating a way to track downloads and develop an equitable plan for dispersal of the royalties, the measure will fail.
"Unless the French government comes up with something more concrete, saying that the $8.50 will be collected and distributed in such a way so that all the stakeholders welcome this new distribution medium, this won't go through," said Krishna.

Source : http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20051223/tc_nf/40473


I love France !!

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