[Upd-discuss] French Parliament Approves Amendment to Legalize Filesharing

[Michael Hart]

From: SANS NewsBites, Vol. 7, Num.64
The SANS Institute
December 23, 2005
http://www.sans.org



French Parliament Approves Amendment to Legalize Filesharing
(22 December 2005)
By a narrow margin, French Parliament members voted for an amendment
that could legalize peer-to-peer downloading of digital content. The
text of the amendment reads "Authors cannot forbid the reproduction of
works that are made on any format from an online communications service
when they are intended to be used privately." The amendment is attached
to an intellectual property rights bill. French copyright law includes
a concept called "private copy" under which people are permitted to make
copies for themselves or for friends. A French court recently held that
content that has been downloaded for personal use meets the requirements
of "private copy." L'Association Des Audionautes, "a French group
that defends people accused of improperly sharing music files", supports a
royalty tax to accompany the amendment, to be collected from the
Internet service providers who would likely pass the cost on by
"levying" a fee on users who conduct a certain amount of downloading.

http://news.com.com/2102-1030_3-6005860.html?tag=st.util.print
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=avOoTq8aXkU8&refer=europe# 
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=avOoTq8aXkU8&refer=europe#>