Demonstrators in Paris last Sunday protested against the proposed new copyright laws currently working their way through the French legislature.
As reported on, oh, one or two occasions, attempts to change French copyright legislation have got much media attention as proposals have been discussed and refined by the country's politicians. The original proposals aimed to toughen the country's stance on the sharing of music online via P2P networks by introducing automatic fines for those found guilty of uploading music without the permission of the content owner.
However, those proposals hit opposition in the French parliament, where opposition MPs introduced amendments that completely changed the proposals, essentially making the sharing of music online legal in return for a copyright levy to be charged by internet service providers.
But ministers quickly got to work removing those amendments for the proposals, placating some of the opposition by reducing the size of proposed fines for illegal file sharers, and by making certain demands of the music and technology industries to ensure their digital rights management systems do not infringe consumer rights. The French parliament passed those proposals, although reports suggest that the country's upper house, the Senate, is further refining the proposed laws, removing some of the restrictions the laws passed by the parliament would have placed on the DRM sector.
The 300 odd protestors who amassed near France's culture and communications ministry on Sunday oppose both the automatic fines for file sharers and the concessions being made for the DRM companies, advocating those proposals put forward by opposition MPs in the French parliament.
Protestors, many of whom came from the so called 'open source IT community', also object to the protection they see the new laws giving to major IT firms like Apple and Microsoft, arguing that the law will put grass roots and open source software developers at increased risk of legal action from one of the major players.