Slashdot Mirror
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."
Now, it's been a couple of years since I've taken French, but I try to keep up...
They called the court the "cour de cassation"...Doesn't "casser" mean "to break"? What the hell?
Any insight will be really helpful....or funny.
AccountKiller
Jokes are funny. There is no humour (and no truth) attached to comments that suggest that France is more likely to surrender on any given occasion than the US. I am happy to laugh at jokes that poke fun of Australia, even ones that legitimately criticise my country and it's attitudes (eg on climate change, or immigration policy, or slavish capitulation to every dumb thing the US does). It's called caricature, it's a legitimate form of humour that emphasises a particular trait - although it is debatable whether caricature can be extended to a whole nation in that manner. However, comments that imply that French people are cowards don't arise from caricature, because French people are not unusually cowardly. These comments arise from American anger over the fact that the French Government was right in not supporting the invasion of Iraq, the French Government was right in expressing doubts about the veracity and importance of the evidence for WMD, the French Government was right to express doubts about the possibility of a peaceful, prosperous nation arising in the post Saddam era. The people that weren't scared of Hussein or his fabled weapons were the ones who showed courage. Those people who were scared of Hussein and his fabled weapons, so much so that they silently agreed to the deaths of some 20000 Iraqis and 2000 US soldiers are the ones lacking in courage.
Conclusion
A statement must be funny to be a joke.
As did the US - and their coalition partner Australia. In fact, it's recently been revealed, that with the full knowledge of the Australian Government, the Australian Wheat Board paid $300 Million dollars to Saddam Husseins regime in kickbacks alone. Yet both of these countries were baying for Iraqi blood. So the "they didn't want to join because they had contracts with Iraq" is just a furphy (a tall tale) - everybody knew that with a puppet government installed in the usual train, it would be a cinch to get contracts to the value and more that they had with Hussein. The US even had the man picked out - Chalabi. Pity about him being a criminal, consequently he only made deputy PM. But he was nice enough to give us back our wheat contracts.
Whilst I am not condoning what was done and the costs ($ and lives) associated with it, the knowledge that Saddam and his cronies had WRT chemical/Nuclear weapons was a genie just waiting to be given out the bottle to anyone.
What weapons? He had no weapons, and if that sort of thing scares you, I don't know how your cowardice permits you to get out of bed in the morning. Apart form that, I see that Bush has decided to help India build nuclear weapons - even they are NOT signatories to the NNPT. Doesn't that strike you as hyprocritical at all?
Even that one time other nut in Libya has come to realise that his stance on these sorts of weapons had no place if he wanted Libya to progress.
One time nut?? One time nut?? His policies are just the same, his absolute rule is unchanged, as is his aggression. Whats different? He owned up to something he didn't do (the Locherbie bombing) and now he is once again a darling of the West, just like Saddam used to be.
Lets not forget this is the guy that used chemical weapons on both on Iran and his own people, something that had not been seen since WWI and something even Hitler who was himself gassed never authorised in combat.....
There you go again with ridiculous comparisons with Hitler. And by the way, have you heard of Agent Orange? And what did Rumsfeld say when he heard that Saddam had gassed the Iranians + Kurdish rebels? Nothing at all.