French MPs Consider P2P Downloads Again

gregbains writes "French MPs are preparing to vote again on a proposal that would allow users to download music and movies in exchange for a flat fee per month. This announcement caused outrage from the music and movie groups, but excitement from the vast majority of civilians." From the BBC article: "A report by the Economic and Social Council which advises parliament on new laws argued that P2P exchanges should be made legal. Meanwhile France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation, ruled there was no automatic right for consumers to make private copies of their own DVDs. As MPs prepare to vote again, backing for the global licence remains strong despite the government's opposition."

Comments

this wont work

[psycho chic]

i dont see this working. as much as i like file sharing, record companies need money to make it. If file sharing is deemed legal, there will need to be more then a flat fee (assuming the fee is minimal) to keep media companies afloat. money does eventually run out for companies too, and people will download as much as they can to make their fee worthwhile.

I must say...

[danpsmith]

...that this is what I've been wanting for a long time in this country.

I've always said that I wish the movies, music, and whatever industries would just get together and charge a flat fee, and offer all their content for one monthly fee. It might be expensive, say 100 a month or something, but that would be better I think. That way the people who like music more wouldn't be punished by the RIAA or have to buy a billion CDs for 15 a piece. You don't have to go bankrupt to be interested in pop culture and we can finally have a truly free exchange of information. How many people buy more than 100 dollars a month worth of movies and music anyway? I know I'd be under that bar even if I was still buying albums. I think this french thing is a great idea.

Re:The basic issue

[msbsod]

Actually they only control the ratio of French over other languages. I know there is a lot of good music in the world. Most of it is not in English. Now, how frequently does your radio station in the US (except for NPR) broadcast something in a language other than English?

Whom do the fees go to, and who decides that??

[O_at_TT]

FTA:

Users would pay a few euros a month to download as much music or film material as they wanted, with proceeds going to the artists.

So the money goes to the artists. But how is the pot of gold divided up?? Are the numbers of downloads for each artist monitored and the money is returned to the artists proportionately to that? Or are there blanket statements made along the lines of: "well so and so was top-40 last year so he's getting a lot" and "never heard of Wolf Parade so they must be terrible so we won't give them much". Are the indie bands going to get a penny? Who decides this... and if it's some French committee somewhere, are they going to be pressured to give more money to "Variete Francaise" artists even if it has fewer listeners?

Oliver / http://www.treasuretunes.com/

PS: In the interest of full disclosure: I am part French AND part American (and Canadian, but let's keep this simple).

question about the writeup

[shark72]

"This announcement caused outrage from the music and movie groups, but excitement from the vast majority of civilians."

I've read a few articles on this, but none have supported the claim that this was supported by the "vast majority" of civilians.

As a sanity check, I most certainly would not want a socialized music system in the US. I don't want to pay a tax for something I wouldn't use. Of the people who are within 50 feet of me at this moment, some might like the idea, some might hate it, but most of them couldn't care less. When I expand this circle to include everybody in my family, the "couldn't care less" ratio increases dramatically.

Is it really the case that the French are different, and the "vast majority" of them want a socialized music system?

My guess is that the writer has made the assumption that because all of his friends happen to be file sharing fans (which is plausible, if he's in high school or college, and/or his friends all happen to be nerds as well), then this mindset is shared by everybody.

Re:If the content companies are so pissed...

[MyLongNickName]

Did Bach, Mozart or Beethoven need the RIAA in order to be able to compose their works?

Nope. They all had rich patrons who commissioned their work.

I agree. We should go back to this. We will let Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer tell us what we can listen to... and Bush... and anyone else with the money. Much better than me being able to fund the music I want to listen to.