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French President Busted For Copyright Violation
An anonymous reader writes "ZeroPaid has an interesting take on the story of Nicolas Sarkozy being accused of copyright infringement. The irony, of course, is Sarkozy's pushing of a 3-strikes law — disconnecting from the Internet those accused of file sharing — in France and across the EU. The French president had apparently offered to settle the copyright infringement accusation for one Euro, but the band rejected the offer, calling it an insult. The article notes that each year since 2006, a high-profile anti-piracy entity has been on the wrong end of a copyright infringement notice. In 2008, Sony BMG was sued for software piracy. In 2007, anti-piracy outfit BASCAP received a cease and desist order related to pirated software. And in 2006, the MPAA was accused of pirating 'This Film is Not Yet Rated'."
Do as I say.
Not as I do.
MABASPLOOM!
Maybe they don't like his agenda?
MABASPLOOM!
is MGMT, for what it's worth. When the band decided to sue, Sarkozy's party offered a "symbolic euro" for compensation.
~~~ Paf. Le chien.
It's amazing that most people simply accept that Hypocrisy is the norm. That's sad.
The copyright organizations call for "zero tolerance" and are then caught themselves.
The congressmen who rail against finding teenagers attractive are caught lusting after them.
Preachers who rail on homosexuals are caught fucking gay prostitutes.
Vigilantes who claim to catch online predators are found to be employing young teens in their exploits and having child pornography on their computers.
Educators who rail against drugs and demand for instant lockup of drug offenders... are found to be drug users themselves...
These are all real stories.
Instead of stepping back and recognizing that their viewpoints may be of questionable value and that they may have made errors in judgment... they just ignore their mistakes and continue in their hypocritical ways.
And the world is a worse place for it.
Here in Chile, the president of the SCD (Society of Author Rights) was caught with pirated software, in a powerpoint lecture about... you guessed it... PIRACY! (they are triying to copy the spanish law, taxing the internet connection for the "lost of revenues")
http://www.elnortero.cl/admin/render/noticia/18164
An our congress try to pass a 3-strikes law for ISPs... with a word document created by a SCD lawyer with a pirated copy of windows ("UE, The Houze"). There are even commemorative t-shirts!
http://url.ie/10xd
http://www.elfrancotirador.cl/2009/01/15/ponte-la-camiseta-con-el-acceso-a-cultura/
There are RIAAs scammers in every country.
Fat wife?
Je ne parle pas francais.
The french president Nicolas Sarkozy is not directly sued for this copyright infringement. His own party (UMP) used the song during a meeting, and didn't reported it to the french RIAA (SACEM) for artist compensation, wich generally is pretty low.
The UMP party is sued for this, but not the french president, who was not in charge for the organization of this meeting, and has presidential immunity.
But's that's pretty funny anyway.
The song was used multiple times for his party's political campaign when the license purchased didn't allow that. From the much more informative article linked in the article, it sounds like they were permitted to use it once but then went on to use it multiple times and, additionally, put it on the internet. Then, rather than paying the difference for such use, the party offered €1. I can't imagine why the band wasn't amused...
In short, this wasn't a case of Joe User downloading a song; it was unauthorized commercial use.
When someone says, "Any fool can see
I know Nicolas Sarkozy being an omnipresent president and all, but it's not like he personally chose the song, right? It's actually some people among his political party (the UMP) that decided to play the song in two meetings.
Otherwise, the result is the same: the political party from which Nicolas Sarkozy is has been busted for copyright infringement. It's a further proof that copyright laws are being way too tentacular. Can't they just see it?
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security. --Ben Franklin
May Sarkozy get the worst possible treatment allowable under law. I hope he gets all his computer (and other electronic devices) seized and thoroughly examined.
Not out of any hate of Sarkozy, or any need for vengeance for the wrongs committed by the RIAA against innocent people.
The purpose is this: I believe that those in power should be feel the impact of their decisions.
You want greater surveillance? Fine, we'll start around your house. You want to wage a war? Fine, any of your eligible children get "volunteered" for army service. You want to give the police power to search people without a warrant? Fine, you'll get searched daily both near your home and near your workplace.
Then, maybe, just maybe, people would think twice. They tend to when there's something at stake for them.
This is really an extensions of Schneier's idea about security: the one in charge will make the decision that matches their own agenda. We the people have to make it a part of the agenda of the people in power to make sure their decisions are sane. I've proposed a way.
May this makes Sarkozy's life really shitty for a while.
Well, you got that wrong then. It were the French that introduced the concept of presumption of innocence in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and later structured the way laws are written down in the Napoleonic Code
Of course, The Enlightenment was the source for these ideals as well as the inspiration for the the US Declaration of Independence and the constitution...
This had a major influence on European law making since Napoleon occupied most of it...
Artists are my slaves, and they don't deserve shit for their work. As I said, FUCK artists, and FUCK their rights. I'm not doing anything wrong.
That's exactly what the RIAA says too.
http://cosmo7.com/safety/safetyriaa.jpg
It's not about fate, it's about character.
there be no shelter here, the frontline is everywhere!
Sigh.
They were hardly protesting against having their music spread to the big masses. They obviously intented to point out that the most influential politician/pro-copyright spokesman of France is a hypocritical asshole.
It's incredible how anyone could miss the point.
Okay, before my hearing got out of control, I was a musician: here's a big secret, the model that you're defending is one wher 1% of musicians are doing 99% of the music, and 1% of that 1% is a bunch of overpaid pretty faces overlording over underpaid musicians. The recording industry as it works now is the worst enemy of the artists, so fuck you. The real income for music is, AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN, live performance. If the corps had their way, half the music in the world wouldn't exist today because it's derivative work (hell, italian composers ripped off heartily from each other) or because there's blatant tributes.
For the sake of capitalism, I truly hope your statement has boundaries. There is no media that can't be ripped and distributed for LESS than the folks that produce it, or ever will be
That is the quintessential form of capitalism.
If I am producing software, and 1 person buys it, copies it, then distributes it for 1/100 (arbitrary number for "best value") of the cost, what incentive do I have to continue producing software?
You don't. At least not for money. You would continue writing software for the same reasons musicians will still sing and play instruments, artists will still paint and sculpt, and authors will still write books: because you want to.
Or maybe some company hires you to work on something they need, much like medieval artists were hired by rich patrons to produce works of art for them. See: Linux