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[IP] Summarized -- Download Piaf, Go To Jail





Begin forwarded message:

From: Randall <rvh40@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: December 21, 2005 10:59:45 PM EST
To: Dave <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>, Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, cyberia <CYBERIA-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Download Piaf, Go To Jail

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,69905,00.html?tw=wn_story_top5
Internet downloaders could face jail sentences and software makers may be required to add anti-copying technology to products distributed in France under draft legislation that's expected to go to a vote this week.

The so-called emergency legislation would require software makers to include digital-rights management, or DRM, software in their products, according to a draft (.pdf) of the proposed legislation seen by Wired News.

...French legislators are also calling for three-year jail sentences and fines of 300,000 euros for illegally copying music, video or any other copyright-protected files.

...But forcing all software makers to conform to special DRM rules for France alone is likely unworkable, said Urs Gasser, professor of law at the University of St.

...The lower house of France's national assembly is scheduled to vote as early as Thursday on the legislation, which has been proposed as a way to bring France into compliance with a pending European Commission copyright directive.

...The language of the proposal reflects lobbying pressure from French media giant Vivendi Universal and other recording industry interests, said Loic Dachary, founder of the eucd.info watch group and treasurer of The Free Software Foundation in France.

"Vivendi Universal, the Business Software Alliance and the Société des Auteurs et des Compositeurs de Musique actually drafted these texts that the legislators are using," Dachary said.

The industry considers the imposition of strong, proactive measures on software makers necessary to thwart pirates, especially in Europe where more than one in three copies of software in use is unlicensed, said Gaëlle Prigent-Protasov, a vice president of software maker Aladdin.

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