Creative Commons France

["Arnaud D." <arnaud.dressen AT gmail.com>]

La France serait-elle le premier pays européen a renforcer sa
legislation contre la liberté de création et surtout la liberté
d'expression ?

Voir ci-aprés un article publié sur le site de Robin Good, sur
www.masternewmedia.org (Rome, Italie).

Copyright Clampdown Coming To Europe: The EUCD Is Here

I am part of a group of citizens who are concerned about control over
digital media.

In particular, I am, like others, very worried about proposed laws,
regulations and technological systems that will make digital media
more expensive, less useful, less diverse and less democratic.


Photo credit: Stephen Grey

This is what is coming up that I am most afraid of:

Music. The same companies that have shut down the Napster service are
now making music CDs that cannot be used in computers. This will make
portable digital music devices such as Apple's iPod useless (unless
you buy into the record labels grand scheme). The European Union
Copyright Directive (EUCD) will make programs that try to read such
crippled CDs illegal.

Video. Digital television and the so-called IPTV, will partly replace
conventional television in the next few years. With it will come
technology and laws that will make it impossible to record certain
programs. Or to skip adverts. Again, the EUCD will make it illegal to
try to get round these systems.

DVDs and computer games. This month, a small company that modified the
PlayStation 2 to play imported games and DVDs was prosecuted and
driven out of business by Sony. Region-free DVD players may be next.

Internet. Feel like having someone's website removed? Just write to
their ISP alleging that they've infringed your copyright! You don't
have to prove anything or go to court, and there's no penalty for
lying. The ISP will be obliged to remove the website even if its owner
has done nothing wrong. This will happen, frequently, if the EUCD
becomes law.

Academic freedom. Last year, a Russian went to the United States to
present a paper on cryptography. He was arrested, because the paper
described how to read certain kinds of electronic book (Acrobat PDF).
After a huge public furore, the charges were dropped and he was
allowed home. His employer in Russia still faces charges in
California. The EUCD will ban unauthorised reading of electronic
books.

Public Libraries. How are libraries going to rise to the challenge of
making digital information freely available to the public? If certain
big copyright owning companies have their way, they won't be able to
lend out digital media. The "digital divide" between rich and poor
will grow as digital media becomes more expensive, unless libraries
are allowed to bridge it.

Have had enough? Want to know more?

Live in France?





As a matter of fact, according to the news that started to emerge at
the end of November, France may be the first European country to enact
what appear to be the worst copyright law ever adopted in Europe,
while facilitatin gthis process by sneaking its legislative session on
the December 22 and 23 dates.

Europe's equivalent to the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
is a controversial directive called the EUCD. Each EU state is
responsible for implementing the minimum set of EUCD restrictions
(which are far from minimal!) but each state can exceed the minimum,
and the entertainment lobby pushes hard to see to it that they do.

They've run amok in France, subverting the lawmaking process with a
farcical wish-list of penalties, mandates and software bans.

Copyfighters in France have published a detailed alert in French; what
follows is a loose, machine-assisted translation:


A prohibition on all software that permits transmission of copyrighted
material that does not integrate both a digital watermark and DRM

A prohibition on marketing or advertising such software

These prohibitions include legal sanctions

DRM mandates for digital radio transmission

A universal wiretapping system for private communication [This is
defined elsewhere as a system to check for, say, music files attached
to email messages, and not one that would violate the "secret of
private correspondence".]

Creation of a universal filering system for all ISPs


Is that enough?

Are you going to still sit down and read?




>From the French Department of Culture: SNEP and SCPP have told Free
Software authors: "You will be required to change your licenses."

SACEM adds: "You shall stop publishing free software," and warn they
are ready "to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing
source code" should the "VU/SACEM/BSA/FA Contents Department" bill
proposal pass in the Parliament.


Where do do you stand?




More info about EUCD directive.

EUCD Information for English-speaking readers.

The French Department of Culture has also threatened to ban Free/Open
Source Software

Petition against hijacking of this legislative process in France

and more...

Academic `chilling' effect of DMCA and EUCD legislation

http://www.macfergus.com/niels/dmca/cia.html
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/293/5537/2028
http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,44344,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46091,00.html