France to Legalize File Sharing

quenting writes "In the debate around the anti-piracy bill, the French Parliament voted yesterday into law an amendment to the DADVSI bill that allows free sharing of music and movies over the internet, considering the downloaded files as a private copy. This decision goes against the French government and the music industry's recommendations, who argue the deputies only wanted to show their independence from the government. The initial bill's detractors who pushed for this amendment want a tax for author rights to be paid by everyone on the ISP fees." The French government has vowed to fight this decision (babelfish link).

Comments

Re:France are weird

[jonnythan]

Hug them?

Why would you hug them?

This is a terrible thing. Sure those crazy French citizens would be able to download music to their heart's content for free, but, uh...... do you simply not believe in copyright?

Regardless of law, is it perfectly OK to buy a CD then proceed to redistribute it ad infinitum?

Re:Mod parent troll

[IAmTheDave]

And how did they do that, denouncing the illegal invasion of Iraq, which lead to the current ongoing train wreck in said country?

Among other things, how about France's illegal trade of oil with Iraq against the UN sanctions and Oil for Food programs? Or perhaps their ongoing (since 1975) campaign to outlaw the use of English words in french advertising and government and scientific papers, like the word "email" because it's too English?

France and the french (yeah, I've been there several times on business) are a bunch of snobs who regularly thumb their noses at America, so screw 'em. There are just a few examples of how France is responsible for their own reputation over here.