[WSIS CS-Plenary] A historic night for P2P

Fri Dec 23 02:09:29 GMT 2005

Dear Friends

Finally a good reason to speak French !

A new night of 4th August,
abolishing the privileges of an economical feudality made obsolete
by new information technologies
(like the feudality of the Middle Ages was made obsolete
by new military techniques)

It is an historical bipartisan advance going beyond political cleavages,
(even if the amendment is not confirmed).
It is really a very great joy because the fight to defend new tech habits
was almost completely absent at the WSIS.

P2P is only mentioned in the Geneva Action plan in one paragraph which I 
wrote
and which was miraculeusement adopted.

The Civil Society of the WSIS did not fight enough to defend the new habits
and the new rights of the citizens to share
( Open Access, Free Software, P2P, all with the same philosophy of 
sharing )

Here find below some news in English,
but the journalists are so obviously biased
that it is digusting.

Too bad I have not the time to translate the article from "Libération"
The 2 articles in English below lack completely to report
that it is a concerted coalition of users and artists :
the "coordination «public-artistes»"
with a new legal concept : the "global license".
who won the day ( ie.. the night ).
They failed to report that this proposal was
made following a study by respected french academics...

Good example of
misinformation made not be telling lies,
but by avoiding to tell some truths...
( retention of information )

The articles below are incomplete and
therefore misleading.
The propaganda machine of the lobbies
is at work to deceive the public....

-------------------------
http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6005860.html

      France may sanction unfettered P2P downloads

By Anne Broache
http://news.com.com/France+may+sanction+unfettered+P2P+downloads/2100-1030_3-6005860.html 

Thu Dec 22 10:45:00 PST 2005

*France could become the first country to pass a law broadly permitting 
free downloads of copyright content from the Internet for private use. *

In a move that could thwart the entertainment industry's attempts to 
seek legal sanctions for copyright violations, French Parliament members 
voted 30 to 28 late Wednesday night to accept an amendment proposing 
such a move.

Attached to a broader copyright law proposal, the amendment--roughly 
translated--reads: "Authors cannot forbid the reproductions of works 
that are made on any format from an online communication service when 
they are intended to be used privately and when they do not imply 
commercial means directly or indirectly."

In short, that language could "open the way to the legalization of 
peer-to-peer" downloading of copyright music and movies in the nation of 
about 8 million Net users, Jean-Baptiste Soufron, a legal counsel with 
the Association of Audionauts 
<http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.audionautes.net%2F&siteId=3&oId=2102-1030_3-6005860&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex>, 
said in a telephone interview with CNET News.com. The French advocacy 
organization has represented approximately 100 clients accused of 
sharing files illegally.

Under French copyright law, there's a concept called "private copy," 
which permits people to make copies of content for themselves or their 
friends, Soufron said. But lately, he added, "they're having a huge 
debate to know if 'private copy' includes downloaded content on the 
Internet or not."

A French court ruled in favor of the organization recently, holding that 
downloaded content for personal use does meet the "private copy" 
definition, Soufron said. But this amendment would give firmer legal 
backing in a nation that relies more heavily on codified law than court 
precedents, he said.

The Association of Audionauts isn't suggesting that copyright holders go 
without compensation, Soufron said. It supports pairing the amendment's 
text with a royalty tax collected from Internet service providers 
<http://news.com.com/Should+ISP+subscribers+pay+for+P2P/2100-1027_3-5113638.html?tag=nl>. 
Those companies would likely raise the money by levying a monthly 
fee--say, 2 to 5 euros--on customers who engage in a certain amount of 
downloading and uploading.

The IFPI, a trade association that speaks for the music industry 
worldwide, said it was "greatly concerned" by the amendment's initial 
approval.

"Instead of promoting the growth of legitimate music services on the 
Internet, some of the measures would be extremely detrimental to legal 
services and to the future of the French cultural industries," the 
organization said in a statement provided to CNET News.com.

But IFPI European spokeswoman Francine Cunningham said the proposal 
doesn't appear to permit unfettered uploading of copyright content. 
"This distinction is important because the recording industry's ongoing 
litigation is against major uploaders who are breaking copyright law by 
making music available to others via the Internet without permission 
from those who created the music," she said.

Last year, a Canadian judge 
<http://news.com.com/Canada+deems+P2P+downloading+legal/2100-1025_3-5121479.html?tag=nl> 
came to a similar conclusion, ruling it legal to download--but not to 
upload--copyright content from peer-to-peer services.

The ultimate success of the proposal is far from certain.

French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, along with much of 
the government, supports beefing up the nation's copyright laws 
significantly, instituting criminal penalties and steep fines for 
pirates. The official reopened debate on the issue on Thursday, with a 
second vote expected later in the day.

Even if it survives the Parliament's lower court, it would also have to 
win approval from its high court, which likely won't consider the 
measure until late January.

Across the Atlantic, the Motion Picture Association of America on 
Thursday called the amendment "an unfortunate development." "Most 
alarming is the apparent disregard for the potential impact on the 
French cinema industry, which will be hardest hit if this vote is 
upheld," said Gayle Osterberg, an MPAA vice president. "We are hopeful 
as this bill works its way through the legislative process, those with 
an eye toward fostering French cinema will prevail."

------------------------------------------------

Original URL: 
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/22/france_legal_p2p_flat_fee/

    France votes to legalize flat-fee P2P downloads

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco 
<http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/?story_url=/2005/12/22/france_legal_p2p_flat_fee/>
Published Thursday 22nd December 2005 22:35 GMT

The French legislature has voted to amend the nation's copyright law to 
legalize internet file sharing with a pot of money being raised, and 
divided up, to compensate artists and other right holders.

Parliament voted 30-28 to add the following statement, tabled by UMP 
Alain Suguenot, to article L-122-5:

Click Here 
<http://red.as-eu.falkag.net/red?cmd=url&flg=0&&rdm=87398143&dlv=704,20373,155794,169418,635305&kid=169418&ucl=111111A&dmn=.fbx.proxad.net&scx=1280&scy=1024&scc=24&sta=,,,1,,,,,,,0,6,0,4657,4639,4039,850,0&iid=155794&bid=635305&dat=http%3A//www.theregister.co.uk%3Fdefault> 

"Authors cannot forbid the reproductions of Works that are made on any 
format from an online communication service when they are intented to be 
used privately and when they do not imply commercial means directly or 
indirectly."

The lobby groups that proposed the amendment, the Association of 
Audionautes and the Artist-Public Alliance, want a €2 to €5 a month levy 
on ISPs to compensate rights holders.

Uploading would remain illegal.

In addition, broadband users would be permitted to opt out, but wouldn't 
enjoy the benefits, losing the right to download copyright material.

The Parliament's vote is at odds 
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/22/anti_piracy_laws_tougher/> 
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/22/anti_piracy_laws_tougher/) with 
the position taken by the French government and the EU, which want to 
criminalize fire sharers, and hope the problem of leakage, and therefore 
compensation, go away.

The French culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres has said the 
government will fight the vote.

The Parliament has voted to extend an old idea, traditionally deployed 
to solve copyright concerns with new technology, into the digital age. 
Now called "digital media access license", a "digital pool", an "ACS", 
or "alternative compensation system", or simply a "flat fee, the 
mechanism is used successfully to compensate rights holders for radio 
play and public broadcasts (for example, in a bar) and songwriters.

It's an idea that's rarely been seen in the mainstream media, until now, 
but it has been discussed many times here at /El Reg/, and advocated 
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/23/orlowski_interactive_keynote/> 
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/23/orlowski_interactive_keynote/) 
by your reporter, as a way of ending the sterile posturing between the 
copyright and anti-copyright camps. A compulsory licensed was proposed 
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/26/hatch_induce_act/> 
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/26/hatch_induce_act/) to a 
Congressional committee as far back as 2000, by of all people, Senator 
Orrin Hatch, before he was wooed by the Recording Industry Ass. of America.

For even casual music lovers, the figures are compelling.

Professor Terry Fisher of the Harvard Law School's Berkman Center think 
tank calculated 
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/01/free_legal_downloads/> 
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/01/free_legal_downloads/) that a 
fee of $5 per month on a broadband connection would compensate the 
recording /and/ movie industries for 20 per cent of their current 
revenue. In an interview last year Jim Griffin 
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/11/why_wireless_will_end_piracy/> 
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/02/11/why_wireless_will_end_piracy/) 
pointed out that the US consumer has rarely spent more than $5 per head 
on music, so the recording rights lobby cannot plausibly claim to be 
being robbed.

As resilient CD sales have demonstrated, despite commonplace P2P file 
sharing, there's a market for added value, whether it be packaging, 
better quality audio, or simply a tangible product. The only parties who 
fear such a move are parties who fear they can't add value. For all the 
utopian calls for "Free Culture", the public has little trouble parting 
with its money when that value is perceived. ®

-----------------------------------

-- 

------------------------------------------------------ 
Francis F. MUGUET Ph.D 

MDPI Foundation Open Access Journals
Associate Publisher
http://www.mdpi.org   http://www.mdpi.net
muguet at mdpi.org       muguet at mdpi.net

ENSTA   Paris, France
KNIS lab.  Director 
"Knowledge Networks & Information Society" (KNIS)
muguet at ensta.fr   http://www.ensta.fr/~muguet

World Summit On the Information Society (WSIS)
Civil Society Working Groups
Scientific Information :  http://www.wsis-si.org  chair
Patents & Copyrights   :  http://www.wsis-pct.org co-chair
Financing Mechanismns  :  http://www.wsis-finance.org web

UNMSP project : http://www.unmsp.org
WTIS initiative: http://www.wtis.org
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