[A2k] Study Shows: Content Flatrate is Feasible

[Volker Grassmuck]

Content Flatrate is Feasible!
Study Shows: Legalising Peer-to-peer Filesharing is Compatible with
European and International Law

Nothing in national law and international obligations constitutes an
obstacle to permitting file-sharing subject to a levy. This is the
conclusion of a legal feasibility study under the supervision of
Prof. Andr=E9 Lucas, the most renowned copyright scholar in France,
that has now been released in English. [1]

The study was conducted at the request of the French =84Alliance Public-
Artistes." [2] The broad coalition of organisations representing the
interests of consumers and education as well as authors and
performing artists is campaigning for a Global License, as the
alternative compensation system is called in France. In their
analysis, Carine Bernault and Audrey Lebois conclude that downloading
is covered by the private copying exception provided that the
existing system of remuneration is adapted. The Internet Service
Providers would have to pay a levy, just as the manufacturers and
importers of blank media do today. For uploading, they envisage
subjecting the making available right to mandatory collective
management. Here the authors point to the precedents of collective
management for reprography introduced in France in 1995 and to cable
broadcast for which collective management was imposed by a EU
directive in 1993. In short, =84compulsory collective management is not
perceived as reversing the fundamental principles of copyright, but
instead =91reinforcing and (=85) organising the protection granted to
authors against infringements of their fundamental rights, as
consecrated in French law since 1793=91"

The study on the feasibility of compensation for peer-to-peer file-
sharing, first released in French in June 2005 [3], has now been
translated into English for wider accessibility. The translation has
been conducted at the initiative of the German advocacy group
privatkopie.net with the support of BEUC, the European Consumers=91s
Organisation, and Stiftung Bridge.

L=91Alliance Public-Artistes has supported its arguments for a Global
License by additional studies on the technical [4] and economic
feasibility [5]. The latter find that a levy of five Euro per month
is economically justified. These studies have thoroughly invalidated
arguments that a flatrate compensation for legal file-sharing is not
compatible with national, European and international copyright law
and threatens the emerging online market that were brought forth,
among others, by the German Ministry of Justice. [6]

With reference to the Lucas study, Members of French Parliament from
both the conservative ruling party as well as from the socialist
party have advanced amendements to the recent copyright law reform in
France with the aim of introducing a Global License. The National
Assembly passed these amendements on 22 Dezember 2005. The Global
License therefore has been a reality in France already. Only by an
unprecedented campaign -- Lib=E9ration called it =84total war on the
Global License" [7] -- did the rights industry manage to get it
rolled back.

What can not be rolled back is the broad societal consensus formed in
France in favor of a flatrate solution to file-sharing. What can not
be rolled back is the parliamentarian support that it has received
from both ends of the political spectrum. And finally, the
substantial arguments that the alliance of public and artists have
worked out in its favor can not be rolled back. It is our hope to
increase the rationality of the international copyright debate by
releasing an English translation of the Lucas study.

Collective rights management is ideally suited for the individual
mass medium Internet. It is juridically, technically and economically
feasible. The question now is no longer: is it possible, but: what do
we want? A privacy-friendly flatrate or a highly invasive
infrastructure of control technology for private management? Freedom
or digital barbed wire?

privatekopie.net
Volker Grassmuck

[1] http://privatkopie.net/files/Feasibility-Study-p2p-acs_Nantes.pdf
[2] http://alliance.bugiweb.com/
[3] http://alliance.bugiweb.com/usr/Documents/RapportUniversiteNantes-
juin2005.pdf
[4] Monitoring and Identifying P2P Media, prepared for SPEDIDAM by
BigChampagne Online Media Measurement, 09 January 2006,
http://alliance.bugiweb.com/usr/Documents/EtudeSpedidamBigChampagne-
en-janv2006.pdf [5] Conducted by the consumers=91s organisation UFC Que
Choisier. English summary in: Press Kit: Downloading and sharing
files on the Internet. An alliance against legal proceedings. An
alliance for a global licence, esp. p. 11 ff., Economic
Justifications, 3 June 2005,
http://alliance.bugiweb.com/usr/Documents/PressKit-June2005.pdf
[6] Government Draft of a Second Law on Copyright in the Information
Society (in German), p. 38 f.,
http://www.bmj.de/media/archive/1174.pdf
[7] Au Midem, guerre totale =E0 la licence globale, Lib=E9ration,
21.1.2006, http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=3D352912

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