French Elections Could Affect HADOPI, ACTA

bs0d3 writes "From having a position in the development and support of ACTA, to implementation of HADOPI, to imposing an internet tax to pay for music; France has been at the forefront of anti-piracy legislation. This week, it has been announced that current President and anti-piracy advocate Nicolas Sarkozy is unlikely to win the next election. His leading opponent is a man named Francois Hollande. Hollande has in the past opposed both ACTA and HADOPI (France's 3 strikes law). Hollande believes that ACTA, 'originally intended to combat counterfeiting trade[,] was gradually diverted from its objective, in the utmost discretion and without any democratic process.' At the same time, Hollande is also strongly against piracy. 'Piracy has been costly,' Hollande said, 'but I do not think that law enforcement alone is the answer to the problem.' Will internet issues be of concern to the voters in France? It certainly is to the rest of us internet users."

Comments

Too early to tell

[Jedi Alec]

Considering Sarkozy got only 1% less of the vote than Hollande in the first round, it's far too early to call it. All the folks that voted for other candidates will pick 1 of the 2 in the next round, and considering the massive amount of votes that went to Le Pen...we might very well be seeing more of Sarkozy.

Re:Too early to tell

[rsborg]

Considering Sarkozy got only 1% less of the vote than Hollande in the first round, it's far too early to call it. All the folks that voted for other candidates will pick 1 of the 2 in the next round, and considering the massive amount of votes that went to Le Pen...we might very well be seeing more of Sarkozy.

There are a lot bad signs for Sarkozy. For one, this is the first election in France's 5th republic where the sitting president didn't come out on top in the first-round popular vote [1]. Another is that Sarkozy has yielded his platform to the extreme right - this not only transfers power in the hands of Le Pen, but will piss off many of the non-extreme right wing voters. He has a very tough fight coming up, and I predict, barring any last-minute gimmicks/scandals, he'll lose it.

[1] http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/04/hollande-beats-sarkozy-in-french-first-round-voting/

Re:Too early to tell

[Luckyo]

There is one difference though. To Sarkozy, piracy and copyright infringement is personal because of his wife. To Hollande, it's business as usual.

Right to be left..

[uhuru_meditation]

If only Germans would get rid of Merkel and Dutch of their freaky Wilders things in Europe would already look a lot different and imported ideas of "freedom" from USA including SOPA, CISPA would be laughed at and rejected with an ease. Soon...

Re:Right to be left..

[Dekker3D]

As a dutchman, I'm telling you that plenty of us would be happy to kick Wilders out of the country-... or better yet, launch him on a one-way trip to space if we can. But we can't seem to get him out of our politics democratically because a lot of christians vote for him out of fear of muslims.

Apparently, for some of us any muslim is worth losing all common sense over. I guess.. that's some bonus points to them muslim-folks?
Seriously though, this deserves a huge facepalm.

Re:Right to be left..

[interkin3tic]

In other words, you disagree with the majority of your voters?

I think in any democracy, from time to time, we all agree with Churchill when elections don't go the way we think they should: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."

Re:Right to be left..

[MtHuurne]

Was it effective? I doubt Wilders would have become as popular as he is if Fortuyn were still around. At least Fortuyn was remarkably honest for a politician, while I get the impression that Wilders is playing one big popularity game. The problem is not Wilders himself, but that a large number of people vote for him.

French internal politics?

[DNS-and-BIND]

Huh? How'd this make the front page? French internal politics? And such a narrow, parochial viewpoint, too. "A man named Francois Hollande"? That's the best we can do to characterize the man? How about this snippet from The Wikipedia, the Source of all Knowledge: "On 16 October 2011, Hollande was nominated to be the Socialist and Left Radical Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election." Funny how his party affiliation is omitted from the summary. What, it's not relevant?

And not a word about how his #1 rival for the Socialist candidacy, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was very conveniently removed from contention from the French race by being arrested in New York on the shocking charge of rape. Let's quote The Holy Wikipedia again: "On June 30, 2011, the New York Times reported that the case was on the "verge of collapse" because of problems with the credibility of the alleged victim, who had, according to sources within the NYPD, repeatedly lied to the police since making her first statement.[57] According to prosecutors, the accuser admitted that she lied to a grand jury about the events surrounding the alleged attack." Had this rape accusation not happened, DSK would be the nominee going against Sarkozy and not "a man named Francois Hollande."

Hey, I'm not saying socialism is bad. It's been a good influence on Western culture in general. Pretty much every item on Marx's Communist Manifesto has been put into law in all Western countries as well as the United Nations. I'm saying let's put the party affiliation right up there where everyone can see...instead of referring to Hollande purely by gender as "a man". Is there anything to be ashamed of?

I'm also questioning the relevance of some random country's internal politics for a Slashdot front page story, even couched in terms of internet freedoms. And the "from the strategic-surrender-in-order-sometimes dept." part of the story is just a cheap shot. America wouldn't even be an independent republic without help from the French. We'd just be a constitutional monarchy like Canada, with a foreigner as our Head of State. What the hell, Slashdot?

Re:Go Sarko

[Opportunist]

Well, if the Greeks WOULD pay their tax, it might be different. :)

But I don't mind our tax (I pay about 50% given my income), as long as I get something back from it. And when I look around myself, I can't help but agree that it's well spent money.

Retirement? Covered. Unemployment? 6 months of getting my current paycheck, then getting enough to survive on. Sick leave? Indefinite, with payment, and all medical expenses (ok, safe a few bucks participation) covered. Injury/health? Covered, no limit. Crime? Lowest in Europe (yes, despite 10% immigrant rates, dear xenophobes). Unemployment level? Around 5%. Public transport? 6 minutes intervals during the day, 15 minutes during the night (at least in cities > 200.000 people). Roads? In perfect repair (though I have to pay extra to use highways). Power/gas/water? Very affordable. Food? Basic food (bread, butter, milk...) is subsidized, you can survive on 3 bucks a day if you really have to (no need to kill old grannies for their purse, even if you have nothing at all). Education? Free until university level, then it's about 400-1000 tuition fee a year.

Should I go on?

And all that on a tax level that the average US citizen would have revolted long ago.

But tell me, who's better off? Me, or a Greek?