[Ecommerce] English version of French education exception campaign call for international solidarity

[Manon Ress]

From: Philippe Aigrain <philippe.aigrain@sopinspace.com>
Date: March 14, 2006 12:43:57 PM EST
Cc: Manon Ress <manon.ress@cptech.org>
Subject: English version of French education exception campaign call
for international solidarity

Dear all,

Please find below a press release from a french scientific and
educational committee asking for international support.

French Parliament is currently transposing the European Union
Copyright Directive, an adaptation of 1996 WIPO copyright treaties.
There is no fair use for education and research in our country and
recent private agreement are threatening the use of copyrighted works
in education and research: only 30 seconds music extracts, no VOD,
DVDs, cable TV programmes display...

If you share this concern, please forward this message to the Members
of Parliament involved (e-mails below) and express your support to
the french teaching and research community.

Sorry for any inconvenience this unsollicited e-mail may cause you,

Thanks,

Melanie Dulong

--
14-03-2006

A Call for Civil Disobedient for Pedagogical Exception in France

The Petition : http://www.politechnicart.net/exception/

The scientific and educational committee has been informed in the
last few days of the nature of the agreements reached, with no
consultation with any other interested parties, between the Ministry
of Education and rightsholders collecting societies in the field of
music, video/television, press, visual arts and the written word.

These agreements sector by sector are meant to replace existing
legislation and are in contradiction with the exceptions provided for
in the relevant European directive (EUCD). They are designed to
control our use of texts, music, images and films in our classrooms,
our lecture halls, our libraries, our conferences, and our publications.

For months now, the Conference of French University Presidents have
been demanding the principle of pedagogical exception to be
introduced into the law bill now under discussion in Parliament
concerning Copyright and Neighbouring Rights in the Information Society.

Considering the shamefully regressive and repressive nature of these
new agreements in matters of teaching and research, thousands of
scholars and teachers, including elected members of the Universities
National Council (CNU), undergraduate and graduate students, and many
others committed to maintaining educational policies of high standard
and international reknown, hereby declare a campaign of civil
disobedience!

Even as this communiqu=E9 is drawn up, these educators, teachers and
scholars are preparing to announce to their students  that they are
no longer in a position to fulfil their educational mission in any
serious way.

We all realise that a campaign of civil disobedience is a very
serious matter.

It is a rare option in our country and may well have no precedent :
educators have committed themselves publicly to disobey their
minister and the law, and they will continue, no matter what the cost
and in spite of any threats or sanctions, to show films, play
records, distribute texts... in any way they deem useful and relevant.

There are today colleagues who have been sued by rightholders. We
demand the immediate suspension of all such actions.

We ask our MPs, sole legitimate representatives of the national
interest within the framework of the harmonisation of European
policies on education and research, to exert to the full their
authority so that France may endow itself with a reasonable
Pedagogical Exception.

We call all our colleagues around the world to send a message at
French MPs for support a Pedagogical Exception in France :

cpaul@assemblee-nationale.fr
fdutoit@assemblee-nationale.fr
f.bayrou@udf.org
dmathus@assemblee-nationale.fr
mbillard@assemblee-nationale.fr
cboutin@assemblee-nationale.fr
bcarayon@assemblee-nationale.fr
pbloche@assemblee-nationale.fr
jpbrard@assemblee-nationale.fr
hemmanuelli@assemblee-nationale.fr
lwauquiez@assemblee-nationale.fr
cvanneste@assemblee-nationale.fr
baccoyer@assemblee-nationale.fr
jdionis@assemblee-nationale.fr
asuguenot@assemblee-nationale.fr


************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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