More Applesauce


Follow the money

Boing Boing has some good bits about the French anti-Apple legislation that I haven't seen anywhere else yet.

* It shuts down the "private copying" right that is the French equivalent of American "fair use." It allows the administration to set a maximum number (all the way down to zero!) of copies that can be made, on a media-by-media basis.

* Therefore, P2P downloading, previously covered under "private copying" in some judicial rulings now carries a fine of 38€

* Two amendments were introduced by Vivendi-Universal that are real weapons of mass dissuasion against small software authors, especially authors of free and open-source software. These specify that software authors are responsible for how users use their software! If the software can be used to make copyrighted works available, then the author *must* implement DRM, or his program can be shut down.

<snip>

* The proposed law shuts down the "private copying" right, but continues to add levies to the costs of blank CDs, DVDs, flash drives and hard drives, to compensate artists for "private copying." So the French get charged for a right that they don't get to exercise.

Hat tip to MacInTouch.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - March 24, 2006 at 05:12 AM  Tag


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