The French Culture Minister, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, will this week address the issues surrounding P2P at a special parliamentary session in Paris. As you'll remember, just before Christmas the French parliament scuppered government attempts to get through stricter laws on online copyright by amending their bill so that it essentially legalised P2P usage, in return for a levy on internet provider bills. The French government responded by withdrawing and now reviewing its legislation. There is still much support for the P2P levy system in certain French political circles, though the consensus seems to be that it won't actually become a reality. Firstly, some point out the P2P levy proposals only got parliamentary support in late December because the vast majority of MPs were already on their Christmas holidays. Secondly, politicians will be facing considerable lobbying from the content industries, and especially France based Vivendi Universal, against the proposals. Thirdly, there are international (and especially EU) IP law issues in going alone in legitimising P2P. And finally, the levy system would probably involve every internet user paying an extra five euros for net access, even if they didn't use P2P, so the system isn't likely to get mainstream support. Nevertheless, the fact the P2P levy system is being considered at such a high level at all is pretty damn interesting.
Feb 7, 2006
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1 min read
France continue to consider legalising P2P
French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres will address P2P at a parliamentary session, as the government reviews plans for a levy that would effectively legalise file-sharing.