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"creation of an administrative authority empowered with the ability to prohibit the publication of free software accessing protected works"

"What does the new French copyright bill do ?"

"creation of an administrative authority empowered with the ability to prohibit the publication of free software accessing protected works"

"What does the new French copyright bill do ?"

The same parliament voted recently for the most restrictive copyright law in Europe, a law that could potentially kill french open source projects, and that was practically written by the French RIAA, there is a sweet smell of irony in the air...

On the other hand that was probably the plan all along: write a stupid law to placate the RIAA/MPAA of this world. A law so totally impossible to enforce, that any case brought in front of a court would be laughed out of the justice system. And then, benefit from Open Source, safe and sound in the knowledge that you [the members of Parliament] have taken your bribe, and you get to benefit from Open Source on top of it. Bastards.

And if you think I am making this up, I invite you to read the documents in the link above and discover the whole sorry mess for yourself.

[As a side note: I am French, and I despise all these wankers, so take this not as a troll, but a letting off steam.]

[Side note 2: also, I was one of the few French who actually took the time to protest the whole thing, so don't give me the "you should have done something" line Mmmmmm'kay?]

• Are you someone famous? If not, government officials don't want to hear from you. [and by famous, I mean: "tabloid famous", the kind of pretty face politicians want to be seen with]
• Are you rich? If you are rich, have you given money to such-and-such politician campaign? If not, government officials don't want to hear from you.
• Are you supported by thousands of angry voters? If not, government officials don't want to hear from you.
• Are you supported by a massive media campaign? Or: is your media communication successful? If not, government officials don't want to hear from you.

Please don't call it the "iPod law", it only shows you are misinformed. If you want to give it a sexy name, call it "DMCA^2".
If you want more information about it, take a look at http://eucd.info/

This law is terrible, not because of the iTunes/iPod furphy, but simply because it is the almost exact copy of the DMCA adapted for France.

Under this new law, DeCSS and equivalents are illegal. Simply using a reverse-engineeed DRM module to watch your legally purchased DVDs under Linux, is prohibited and incurs a fine. This clearly promotes forced sales tied to existing big businesses : if you want to watch a DVD on your PC, the only legal option is to buy a Microsoft O/S and associated third-party viewer.

Under this law, tying DRMs to user identification -- even using biometrics and usage tracking, becomes legal, raising serious privacy questions.

Worse, this laws makes a large number of people criminals overnight, for simply exercising their right to private copy for private use. It was voted with only the voices of the current Chirac's party majority (UMP) voting for it. A single UMP député voted against with the rest of the minority. This particular député has been very vocal against the bill. He recently co-wrote an article in the most important right-wing (majority) newspaper im Framce (Le Figaro), earlier this week, why he thought this bill was disastrous. Interestingly, his co-author was socialist ex-prime minister Michel Rocard, who is credited with defeating the pro-patent lobby in Europe last year, as the enlightened rapporteur.

The socialist party minority has vowed to bring the bill before the constitutional council, the last body that can declare the bill contrary to the constitution, and to repel it if they get the majority next elections, due next year. At least some politicians get it, but unfortunately not enough to make a difference today.

A sad day. More details and alarmist news there.

BTW, Apple can rest easy. The DADVSI bill, as it is called, was considerably watered down on this issue by Senate, and represents no threat whatsoever to Apple's business in France.

And read the report from EUCD.info: French Parliament approves the worst copyright law in Europe .

What the Assemblée's version of the text forced DRM makers to give publicly is NOT "trade secret", just "informations needed for interoperability", with such precision : "technical informations and programming interfaces needed to obtain a copy in an open standard of a protected work".

These informations should be made public for a competition to be free. If it isn't, then it's use for blocking competition. That's because they didn't disclose such informations that Microsoft was found guilty by the European Commission.

Now we understand that US Corporations don't want competition to be free, the just want to rule the market, by whatever mean.

Let's not worry, though, thanks to their lobbying (Apple Corp and the DoC pushed very hard on the french Senate), the new text just allow some kind of stupid commission to ask and say "please!" in order to _try_ to obtain thoses informations now.

Get comfortable, no one will be able to compete with US DRM. The "iPod law" (what a stupid name! are people able to pronounce "interoperability" or do they have to always speak in trademarks??) is going to be erased under Apple's pressure.

(more infos on http://eucd.info/index.php?English-readers )

Instead of commenting on stuff based on press reports written by clueless journalists and possibly driven by biased comments from the industry, you should probably read the law, the amendments and the debates:

http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/12/dossiers/0312 06.asp

The law is essentially a patch on the IP code, which you will find there:

http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/

Of course, this needs a working knowledge of French.

Some information in English is available here:
http://eucd.info/index.php?English-readers

This is a massively complex topic, with lots of politicking, negociating and backhanded tricks. Sorry, but you cannot possibly make a meaningful comment on the issue unless you have followed it a bit.

To me, most of the comments here sound as clueless as if some French guy had commented that the Democrats had rushed Bush to go to war in Iraq.

Folks, get all the facts :
This law might just force the makers of mp3 players such as Apple to open their device to music PURCHASED on another store than the one that manufactures the MP3 player, but :
- it enforces the monitoring of all traffic on the internet (so that the "pirates" are fined 38 Euros per illegally downloaded song),
- it declares illegal to use, advertise, write or distribute any program that could be used to share music illegally or that could be used to transfer DRM protected data from one medium to another (you can't make MP3s of a purchased CD to put it on your MP3 player).

Since it is forbidden to access the source code of the DRM, you won't be allowed to read DVDs on a Linux Box, or any other DRM protected stuff, because DRM == proprietary software. this is the most restrictive interpretation of the European Directive anywhere in Europe !!

more info on http://eucd.info/

Ce matin, M. Richard Cazenave (UMP), député de l'Isère a demandé une seconde délibération sur l'article 7. Celui-ci est une des têtes de l'hydre que constitue le projet de loi DADVSI. Il définit ce qu'est une mesure technique, ce que ne peut pas faire une mesure technique, les obligations que la loi pose aux fournisseurs de mesures techniques en matière de fourniture des informations essentielles à l'interopérabilité, ainsi que les conditions dans lesquelles il est possible de neutraliser une mesure technique à des fins d'interopérabilité.

The main objective of this project it the legal protection of the "technical protection measures" (DRM) and the outlawing of their circumvention.

The french project though, goes much further in that direction than what the directive imposes, it is, in its current state, the most restrictive DMCA in the world!

The activists of the Free Software Foundation France founded the EUCD.INFO initiative to fight against those legal restriction that endengers the interoperability and the will of Free Software developpers.

This Vanneste guy is the "rapporteur", which means he is the one who wrote the law, and he is very unpleased that some of the EUCD.INFO amendements may be included in his project, rendering it an inoffensive version of the DMCA, comparable to the US one with some of the recent exceptions.

There is a long list of incredible things done by Vanneste (including being recognized guilty in his trial for homophobic declarations, protesting against a pacifist movie about the Algerian decolonization war with extreme-right folks, passing a law which recognize the positive role of colonization, etc...), and by the government (propaganda about "unlawful downloading" being the point of all this law project, opening a propaganda website about it which censors a so-called "democratic debate" where 95% of the comments are against that law project, removing amendements voted by the parliament which are in the opposite direction of the general restrictive axis, pushing amendments written by Vivendi-Universal, etc.)

I think you'll hear again about this DADVSI (the short name for "author's right and neighbour's right in the information society) law project, whatever the outcome may be!

I'm afraid the article does not relate *at all* what happens in France at the moment, regarding DRM and "Internet piracy".

The French parliament is currently discussing new laws, that will implement the EUCD directive, by forbidding and severly punishing any attempt to circumvent DRM protection and copyrighted material downloads. This project is called DADvSI.
Some MPs are even pushing to forbid the development, diffusion and the use of P2P software.

Lots of (artits, users, musicians, etc.) communities are opposed to all this.
MPs first voted against this project and adopted a global licence (monthtly fee for unrestricted private downloads), but the French minister of Culture said it was not acceptable and he had the parliament to re-discuss the project again.

More information (all in French) at:

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/10032006/7/projet-dadvsi- la-licence-globale-repasse-la-trappe.html
http://eucd.info/
http://lestelechargements.fr/
http://www.odebi.org/new/theme/
http://www.adami.fr/

No no, you're totaly wrong with this. I'm french so i know what i'm talking about. The law which is about to be voted is the inverse. I will be now ILLEGAL to crack drm, and even conturn the protection of the dvd to read it on a linux for example could be consider as illegal too.
This law is as strict as the american one.

The truth is that the french government want the online music store to open themselves to all the mp3 player but with the drm not without. They want them to use the same type of drm( I really don't think apple and microsoft care about France ...), but use drm become an obligation. I repeat conturn them will now be stricly forbidden.

If you understand french, go there http://eucd.info/. You will understand France is no longer freedom's country ...

This latest verdict is probably in line with the current French legislation. But since France is a member of EU, they will eventually have to implement the EU Copyright Directive (EUCD). The French parlament are in fact discussing this, the proposed french law is called "Droit d'Auteur et aux Droits Voisins dans la Société de l'Information" (DADVSI), and though opposition is tough it will certainly come to life soon, as all EU directives must in all member states.

Then P2P networks and the use of them, even to share innocent files, will be illegal. This law will also affect Open Source software development, so it might matter more than you think.

You can help the French community by signing a petition here:

http://eucd.info/index.php?English-readers

Many thanks to eucd.info and all the people who helped this. Without them, we would have DRM everywhere, p2p illegal (even for sharing free software or other free content), and free software would be illegal as well (as any software which does not respect DRM). Ok, maybe this is what will happen finally (that would be sad), but there is still hope ... Thoses people wanted a law that make DRM mandatory, hopefully we'll get a law that allow us to share music legally.

We'll see in January what happens ...

The French government is planning a law against Open Source means of sharing information on the web. It is supposed to encourage people to share copyrighted music without a licence. Only software allowing restrictions - concerning the data being transmitted - to be enforced would be legal. Open Source software doesn't fit this criteria, as the coded restrictions can always be deleted from the code. This law has been declared urgent by the government under pressure from the music industry and is scheduled to be presented to parliament on December 20 and 21, 2005. When most MPs won't be there. Please help us by signing the petition on http://eucd.info/petitions/index.php?petition=2 It's in french, but you just have to click "Signer la pétition" and to fill in your name, profession (optional) and email. A email asking for confirmation will be sent to you and you have to click on the confirmation link they give for your signature to be validated. Please pass on this information. It is NOT a spam or a hoax or a joke. Unfortunately... Mariane

French readers take note:
There is a petition against the French EUCD implementation attempt at
http://eucd.info/petitions/index.php?petition=2

Now that we've had all the jokes and funnies, how about somebody actually translating bill in question? I know a bit of French, but not enough to cover legalese.

-Lars

It appears to be about copyright infringement. I am sure the comment was about Open Source P2P software, not ALL Open Source software.

You would think so, but no. This bans all open-source software that could send copyrighted data over the network. In other words: Apache, Samba, Openssh, mozilla/firefox/thunderbird/etc., gaim, KDE's kioslaves, GNOME's gnomevfs -- hell -- this law probably bans even glibc (sockets!) and the Linux kernel (raw packet interface). That's right. FTP clients and servers are banned. CUPS is banned (you can use IPP to transfer arbitrary data to a printer on another machine). BIND is banned (I believe you can tunnel connections over DNS requests).

Basically, any program that can move copyrighted data over the network cannot allow the user to modify its source code.

THESE PEOPLE ARE FSCKING INSANE.

Here is the original French:
Un amendement au projet de loi DADVSI, ayant pour objectif d'assimiler à un délit de contrefaçon, l'édition, la diffusion et la promotion de tout logiciel susceptible d'être utilisé pour mettre à disposition des informations protégées par le droit d'auteur et n'intégrant pas un dispositif de contrôle et de traçage de l'usage privé (mesure technique). Tout logiciel permettant le téléchargement comme certains logiciels de discussion instantané (chat), tout logiciel serveur est concerné (P2P, HTTP, FTP, SSH, ...). Cet amendement surréaliste a été rédigé à l'origine par Vivendi Universal, puis retravaillé par plusieurs membres de la commission Sirinelli, une commission du Conseil Supérieur de la Propriété Littéraire et Artistique.

There is an online petition against the bill here. It started today and there are already 2087 signatures by individuals and 40 by organisations. Go on and sign.

There is an online petition against the bill here. It started today and there are already 2087 signatures by individuals and 40 by organisations. Go on and sign.

The original poster is extremely confused, at best.

What the story really is:

- Content industry pressures Europe into having their own version of the american DMCA, the EUCD. It passes.
- The EUCD, as a European directive, needs to be transcribed into every EU member state law.
- France is late transcribing the EUCD into national law and gets fined several times about it.
- The French government starts transcribing EUCD requirements into national law, and gets "friendly advice" about how to do it from (basically) Vivendi Universal and the (influential) french movie & arts industry, and none from the (non vocal and lower influence ) french tech & net industry.
- The EUCD has mostly the same provisions as the DMCA (don't break DRMs, etc) , but the French content industry (backed by US DRM solutions vendors) wants to go further : make DRM support mandatory for basically all software that enables peer-to-peer file swapping, including audio streaming software (to plug the Stationripper hole)

It is that step further (making DRM mandatory) which is inherently incompatible with Open Source software, and threatens to make things like Icecast illegal, that has brought up a stir.

The bill is scheduled for parliament vote on December 22th. More info at http://eucd.info/

Yankees desserve yet another dozen of 911.
These filthy obese fucktards have no repesct for privacy and yet happen to manipulate unser laws in order to milk us even more.
Fuck the ghey Uncle Sam until its eyes bleed!

Le cochon dans le maïs

        Imprimer la chanson Le cochon dans le maïs de Les Fascagats à partir d'une fenêtre en mode texte et sans publicité :-) Envoyer le texte Le cochon dans le maïs de Les Fascagats à un ami

Demain, je porte plainte contre l'Amérique
J'ai bouffé du maïs et du chou transgénique
Je n'bande plus ça reste mou comme une chique
José Bové a dit que c'était allergique
Il paraît qu'on est plusieurs dans le le même cas-ca
On ira plus manger au Ricain car c'est caca

Le seul remède c'est une assiette de foie gras
Un verre de rouge, du Roquefort et pas de soda
Demain, je porte plainte contre l'Amérique
L'Amérique
Nous ce qu'on veut c'est du bon et du biologique
Attends tu vas voir, on va leur faire la nique
Faire la nique
Si les Ricains nous embrouillent con:

On leur mettra le cochon
Le cochon dans le maïs
Et on mettra les glaçons
Les glaçons dans le pastis
{x4}

Demain, je porte plainte contre L'Amérique
J'ai bouffé du poireau transformé génétique
Et depuis ma carotte n'est plus énergique
Pourtant ma femme tu verrais comme elle l'astique
Il paraît qu'on est plusieurs dans le même cas-ca

On ira plus manger au Ricain car c'est caca
Le seul remède c'est une assiette de foie gras
Un verre de rouge, du Roquefort et pas de soda
Demain, je porte plainte contre l'Amérique
L'Amérique
Nous ce qu'on veut c'est du bon et du biologique
Attends, tu vas voir, on va leur faire la nique
Faire la nique
Si les Ricains nous embrouillent con:

On leur mettra le cochon
Le cochon dans le maïs
Et on mettra les glaçons
Les glaçons dans le pastis
{ad libitum}

none of the copyright holders nor politicians have been intimidated by a bunch of whiners on/.

So are you going to join one of the organisations fighting this?

The German parliament which has just adopted DMCA-style provisions to outlaw the circumvention of technical protection measures that control and curtail the fair use of intellectual property (and only needs the other House's assent for part of the new legislation) makes Germany the third country, following Denmark and Greece, to implement the highly controversial "monstrosity" known as the European Union Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC.

This move, allegedly a "propaganda victory" dubbed "lex Bertelsmann" (after the giant media conglomerate expected to line their corporate pockets under the new laws) in furious disapproval by tech-savvy parts of the news media, makes Germany one of the early adopters setting an unfortunate precedent for further European countries like the UK and France whose citizens, and notably developers like Linux kernel guru Alan Cox, will probably not be spared from similar legislation for much longer either.

Although open-source researchers, cyber-rights activists and even the ruling Social Democrats' very own IT experts as well as hardware manufacturers underlined the severe dangers and inconsistencies of this new and doubtful philosophy extending copyright law to reduce many of the general public's rights to insignificance, in a debate focusing only on academic exemptions from the publishers' power grab, the opposition even tried to tighten the government's bill, ignoring widespread experiences of Chilling Effects such as censorship and assaults on the Freedom to Tinker during the past four years under the EUCD's U.S. counterpart of draconian "bad law and bad policy", the flawed Digital Millennium Copyright Act, another overreaching implementation of the

EUCD.INFO. You can donate money to help, tax deducible in France.

A proposal has been made last week to the national parliament to consider stating explicitely that data format, protocols and encryption are not technical measures of protection in the sense of the European Union Copyright Directive.

Laurent

You are wrong when you say they are not very vocal. But you are right if you mean you cannot hear them much.

If you are in France, click here :eucd.info (part of FSF). If you are elsewhere in old Europe, this page (in French) gives you links to other country's equivalents.

I am donating 100 good old euros. You too can help!

You are wrong when you say they are not very vocal. But you are right if you mean you cannot hear them much.

If you are in France, click here :eucd.info (part of FSF). If you are elsewhere in old Europe, this page (in French) gives you links to other country's equivalents.

I am donating 100 good old euros. You too can help!

Ten bucks says copyright in the EU will be extended in the next 18 months or so...

Taken!
In order for this to be implemented equally all over the EU it needs to be in a directive. Creating an EU directive is a long and winding process. I don't think such a directive would catch us off guard (again), so it would probably fail.

As a "frenchie", I obviously follow news on this subject. The french branch of the european FSF has launched a fund to help fight this forthcoming bill.

Since 1985, here in France, we have the right to copy media for private use. It is also possible for public & non-profit organizations to adapt existing media for disabled people.

As such, copy protected CD's are already illegal...

EUCD is the european drective that is the equivalent of DMCA in the European Union.

The Anti-EUCD fight is not finished in France as the law project has been proposed on December 3rd. It will be voted in february.

The FSF Europe/France is fighting it. Their aim is to propose arguments to deputees to reject the law. Yes, it is Free Software lobbying.

The main problem is to inform the mainstream of the danger of this law: the approach is that the law kills the "private copy" autorisation.