CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘France’ Category

French record labels sue, um, SourceForge: “

Open source haven thumped for harboring P2P app

The French music industry is suing four US-based companies for distributing P2P applications that can potentially be used to illegally share music.…

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(Via The Register - Public Sector.)

Post from: TorrentFreak

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Record Labels to Sue Vuze, Limewire and SourceForge: “

French record labels have received the green light to sue four US-based companies that develop P2P applications, including the BitTorrent client Vuze, Limewire and Morpheus. Shareaza is the fourth application, for which the labels are going after the open source development platform SourceForge.

Société civile des Producteurs de Phonogrammes en France (SPPF), an umbrella group for several record labels in France, claims that the four file-sharing applications facilitate mass copyright infringement. Although the companies (and applications) themselves have nothing to do with copyright infringement, SPFF believes it has a strong case.

The record labels argue that the Vuze and the others are knowingly distributing software with the purpose to permit unauthorized access to copyrighted works. In essence they are saying that everything, or every application which allows a user to share files, will be indeed used for illegal purposes. In contrast, in the US, companies that don’t encourage their users to commit copyright infringement with their applications, are not acting illegally.

SPFF had already sued the various companies and organizations last year, but until now it has been unclear whether the US based companies behind the applications could be prosecuted under French law. A French court has now ruled that this is indeed possible, which means that they can proceed to court.

Recent French legislation which inspired the labels to go after the P2P companies, suggests that all P2P applications must have a feature to block the transfer of unauthorized copyright works. The clients that are sued by SPFF obviously don’t have such a feature. In fact, it is questionable whether it would be technically possible to develop such a filter. Nevertheless, SPFF demands it, and is claiming millions of dollars in damages for lost revenue.

Vuze CEO Gilles BianRosa stated in a response to TorrentFreak, ‘While we appreciate the intent of the new French law, we believe SPPF’s complaint is misguided. Vuze is dedicated to the distribution of legitimate content using new technology. In that sense, our interests are aligned with the interests of all content owners, including SPPF’s members, against piracy.’

‘We are disappointed that SPPF has taken this approach, given that our business is dedicated to the distribution of legitimate content,’ BianRosa added. ‘SPPF’s claims against Vuze are simply wrong. The Vuze business complies fully with both French and American law. The recent ruling of the French Court was solely on a jurisdictional issue, not on any merits, and we believe it is in error.’

Interestingly, SPFF is also going after Sourceforge, the open source development website, because it hosts the P2P application Shareaza. Putting aside the discussion on the responsibilities of application developers for their users activities, the decision to go after SourceForge for hosting a application that can potentially infringe, is stretching credibility beyond all bounds’

Meanwhile, Vuze has appealed the decision. Separately, the company is suing SPPF for defamation based upon several false and harmful statements made by SPPF about Vuze. A different French Court has denied SPPF’s attempt to derail those claims recently , and is allowing the defamation lawsuit to proceed.

If SPPF succeeds in their case against organizations running the four P2P applications, FTP software and Internet browsers might be next, if they don’t go after Ubuntu and other operating systems first. Perhaps it is even better to shut down the Internet entirely.

(Via Techdirt.)

French Senate Approves 3 Strikes Law: “Despite the fact that the EU Parliament rejected the concept of a ‘three strikes’ law for kicking people off the internet, and warned member countries that such laws interfered with civil rights and privacy rights of individuals, France is moving forward with such a law. The EU Parliament specifically had called on France to reconsider such a law, but the French Senate has approved the law by an overwhelming majority, 297 to 15. The law still needs approval from the lower house of Parliament as well, but it’s disappointing that any government body would approve such a law after it’s been shown to be both unnecessary and destructive.

French Senate passes bill to disconnect filesharers: “

Three strikes for les gratuittards

The French Senate has overwhelmingly voted in favor of disconnecting Internet pirates, despite European Parliament’s direct opposition to the punishment.…

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(Via The Register - Public Sector.)

French storm the bastille over ‘Sarkozy’s Big Sister’ database: “

Je ne suis pas un nombre

Imagine, if you will, an announcement by the UK Government that it is going to create a new database to track anyone over the age of 13, who has been ‘active in politics or the trade unions or who has a significant role in business, the media, entertainment or social or religious institutions’. Let’s say 20 million individuals who the authorities believe are ‘likely to breach public order’.…

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(Via The Register - Public Sector.)

French oppose sinister government database:

Egan Orion , Friday 5 September 2008. 06:04:00

Ready to storm the Bastille again

THE FRENCH populace, having returned from its annual summer vacation throughout the month of August, is raising its collective voice in opposition to an arbitrary government decree establishing a national database that many of its critics view as excessively intrusive and ripe for oppressive authoritarian abuse….

(Via The Inquirer.)

French Jewish group to sue YouTube: AFP, Thursday, August 14, 2008.

PARIS - A French Jewish group said Thursday it is suing the YouTube video-sharing website over a clip showing a host of Jewish public figures to the soundtrack of a pre-war anti-Semitic song.

The video posted on the U.S. site YouTube and its French rival Dailymotion shows a slideshow of more than 150 French politicians, TV stars, journalists, writers, philosophers, actors, singers and comedians.

It is set to the sound of a song recorded before World War II, called “Rebecca’s wedding,” which describes the guests at a Jewish wedding as dirty, rude and dishonest.

“We consider this video, though it names no-one, to be a photographic list of an anti-Semitic nature and therefore liable to criminal prosecution,” the head of the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), Sammy Ghozlan, said in a statement.

He said he filed suit against Dailymotion and the author of the video on Tuesday, and intended to take similar action against YouTube after discovering it too was hosting the clip.

The anti-Semitism bureau took legal action earlier this week after it found a Paris store selling T-shirts printed with the phrase “Jews forbidden from entering the park,” in German and Polish.

A Chinese woman and her daughter, who run the store in the multi-ethnic Belleville neighbourhood of Paris, were later arrested and are facing possible charges of incitement to racial hatred, judicial officials said Thursday.

Investigators are trying to track down who manufactured, distributed and imported the T-shirts, whose inscriptions are reproduced from 1940 banners that targeted the Jews of Lodz, central Poland.

Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany at that time, and 95 percent of the 200,000 Jews held in the Lodz ghetto eventually died in concentration camps.

Belleville, in the northeast of the capital, has been the scene of clashes between gangs of Jewish and north African youths, in which a 17-year-old Jewish boy was seriously injured in June.

France is home to Europe’s largest Jewish commuity, estimated at 600,000 people, and its largest Muslim community, at around five million.

Europe votes on anti-piracy laws: “Late changes to proposed European telecoms laws could see suspected copyright pirates banned from the net.”

(Via BBC News.)

Europe drafts law to disconnect suspected filesharers: “France has suggested an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package, which would bar broadband access to anyone who persists in illegally downloading music or films.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Europe drafts law to disconnect suspected filesharers: “

Three strikes and you’re out

France has suggested an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package, which would bar broadband access to anyone who persists in illegally downloading music or films.…”

(Via The Register - Comms.)