Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

France Hostile To Open Source Software?

Posted by Zonk on from the no-frog-jokes dept.

AdamWeeden writes "According to the Free Software Foundation of France the French Department of Culture is telling free (as in speech) software providers that 'You will be required to change your licenses ... You shall stop publishing free software,' and warn they are ready 'to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code.'" From the post: "It appears that publishing Free Software giving access to culture is about to become a counterfeiting criminal offence. Will SACEM sue France Télécom R&D research labs for having published Maay and Solipsis (P2P pieces of software used to exchange data)? Up to this point, the rather technical debate surrounding the issues addressed by DADVSI bill (copyright and neighbouring rights in the information society) makes one ask: Just how much control do the Big Players in the field of culture want to seize? It now looks like years of quibbling have put an end to compromises." More information on the DADVSI bill is available at Infos-du-net.com. They've come a long way since last year.

12 of 524 comments (clear)

  1. Is there a French word for "Backroom Deal"? by DiscoBobby · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because Microsoft France surely just made one.

  2. Toute votre base sont appartiennent à nous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Toute votre base sont appartiennent à nous
    il n'y aura aucun logiciel libre en France !

  3. I love the Internet, though... by planetoid · · Score: 5, Informative

    French programmers could just develop their software under assumed pen-names and publish their free software on servers overseas outside of the French government's jurisdiction. It's a sucky law if it passes, but if it does pass, I'm eager as hell to see it broken en masse to the point of it being unenforceable. Stereotypes about surrendering notwithstanding, of course...

    --
    Slashdot requires you to wait longer between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment.
  4. jesus fucking christ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    from TFA:
    SNEP and SCPP have told Free Software authors: "You will be required to change your licenses." SACEM add: "You shall stop publishing free software," and warn they are ready "to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code" should the "VU/SACEM/BSA/FA Contents Department"[1] bill proposal pass in the Parliament.

    [...]

    Notes about the organisations

    SACEM is the main company dealing with collective copyright management for music in France. French RIAA.

    SNEP (Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique, national syndicate of phonographic publishing), was created in 1922. Spokesman for its 48 members, it represents them towards the government, the MP, the administration, other professional bodies, the media and the public.

    SCPP (Société Civile des Producteurs Phonographiques, civil company of phonographic editors), gathers the money collected towards the users of phonograms and videomusic users and redistributes it to its members (more than 800 producers, including many independent producers and the main international companies such as Sony BMG, EMI, Universal, and Warner). It weighs more than 80% of the copyrights perceived by the French producers.
    So... not the French Government. Fuckwit submitter, fuckwit eds.
  5. Re:What is "access to culture? by fatboy · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    --
    --fatboy
  6. Re:I'm not too worried... by b0bby · · Score: 5, Funny

    When has France ever been hostile towards something and then come out on top?

    What about Greenpeace?

  7. Re:Nice to see... by SatanicPuppy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yea, we tried to patent it, but the prior art was overwhelming.

    --
    ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
  8. Re:Interesting by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 5, Funny
    ah yes, here comes the flood of anti-french racist idiocy

    As it should. Damn those French racists! :)

  9. We are NOT anti Free Software by this+great+guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Let me tell you that the editorial's title ("France Hostile To Open Source Software?") is very misleading for a very simple reason: the anti Free Software statements have been made by the SNEP and SCPP, which are --guest what-- 2 lobbying groups created by various music companies. Here is a small list of companies belonging to those groups: Sony BMG, EMI, Universal, Warner Music France, Walt Disney Company, etc. Complete lists can be found on their websites:

    Those 2 lobbying groups are obviously anti-P2P (and they say it clearly on their respective websites) and that explains totally why they are so anti Free Software, knowing that BitTorrent as well as other popular P2P tools are Free Softwares. But in no way whatsoever have the French in general, or the France Government, made any anti Free Software statements. We all remember those various stories that prove quite the contrary !

    As a supporter of Free Software, and french citizen, I am quite sad to see this story posted on Slashdot. It just makes people have a bad opinion about us :(

  10. Ok, some much needed clarification... by Renaud · · Score: 5, Informative

    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/

  11. Online Petition by vagabond_gr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  12. Nope. by goldseries · · Score: 5, Informative

    This whole article is a misunderstanding. The French's press release in English was just poorly worded. When the original text is looked at it is obvious that the French are only instituting a DMCA of their own (sucks!). They are also banning open source software that is used to pirate. This is what we should really be complaining about. See article on techdirt for details. http://techdirt.com/articles/20051202/1451240_F.sh tml

    --
    Great webhosting, cheap rates! Enter code SlashdotDiscount