The gov' recently tried to make a law about the whole p2p stuff, something like the DMCA. The problem is that this law seems quite biased. Not just that there would be more legal actions against DLers and DRMs on every files so if you have it on your PC you can't even have it in your car of share it with your brother/sister, but it would also reduce a lot the possibility to make open source software (if I understood well, you could still developpe open source software, but couldn't share the source... 
mmh yeah ?).
Well to sum up, it doesn't sounds at all like some compromise for the public and respect to the artists' rights, it's just all for the music industry.
But to make a picture of how it happened, basically the "culture minister", literally sold his parents, his childs, and himself to the music industry :
while the p2p debate is quite old now, and a real society question (8M of people use p2p in France), they decided it should be delt with urgently (which means only one 'read' by the parliament or something like that instead of two... Well some juridic stuff I can't really explain) on december the 21 or 22 (so there's not many deputees).
Some guys from virgin and fnac (a virgin-like in France) were presenting some legal DL software just a few meters away from the parliament (a poorly disguised cheap way to try to convince a few deputees).
Also some parts of this law were written or proposed by majors (it's as simple as that), while the associations of open source software and other organisations like that were always ignored.
The 'problem' is that this whole masquerade was so obvious, that when some deputees proposed some amendments against the law, they were accepted by the majority (30 to 28) (the amendment decriminalises DL (not UL), in favor of a "global licence", you pay 5-7€/month, and you're allowed to DL (of course if you don't pay, you'd better not DL :þ).
It really made some waves in the assembly, and while there's usually the left wing against the right wing, feelings were mixed on this question, which shows how complicated it is.
Basically, what was so urgent and had to be settled in a few hours, has now gone out of hands of the minister.
Now you can see how great the democracy is : Not happy with the result, the music industry, oops... I mean the minister, wants to make another vote about those amendments.
The good thing is that the debate has reached another level.
For a while p2p users were discribed as dumb teen who DL cuz' it's free, period. Now, and as much as TV talks about it in a biased way in favor of the music industry*, it starts to be seen as what could be the next place for cultural content (people of all ages use p2p).
Also, a poll (by the association of french artists and singers) shows that 75% of them agree with the concept of "global licence", 12% disagree, 13% have no opinion.
Which shows the whole P2P subject should be studied in details (and particularly this global licence, as there are many different economic direction to analyse, from the singer, to the guy who makes the CD artwork^^, how to know what is DLed and how to redistribute the money, etc etc... differences between music and movies...), rather than settled in a hurry in a biased way, as this could be a whole new era for the aquisition of cultural content.
We'll see in january as the debate continues in a few weeks.
(*when you're interested in a subject, it's amaizing how you realise TV is biased when comparing to radio and newspaper. While this law was headlining all newspaper websites, they were talking about retarded christmass related subject on TV... I mean, they'd rather tell you what toy sold well than talk about this law... Am I watching the news or TV shopping FFS ?!)
mmh yeah ?).
Well to sum up, it doesn't sounds at all like some compromise for the public and respect to the artists' rights, it's just all for the music industry.
But to make a picture of how it happened, basically the "culture minister", literally sold his parents, his childs, and himself to the music industry :
while the p2p debate is quite old now, and a real society question (8M of people use p2p in France), they decided it should be delt with urgently (which means only one 'read' by the parliament or something like that instead of two... Well some juridic stuff I can't really explain) on december the 21 or 22 (so there's not many deputees).
Some guys from virgin and fnac (a virgin-like in France) were presenting some legal DL software just a few meters away from the parliament (a poorly disguised cheap way to try to convince a few deputees).
Also some parts of this law were written or proposed by majors (it's as simple as that), while the associations of open source software and other organisations like that were always ignored.
The 'problem' is that this whole masquerade was so obvious, that when some deputees proposed some amendments against the law, they were accepted by the majority (30 to 28) (the amendment decriminalises DL (not UL), in favor of a "global licence", you pay 5-7€/month, and you're allowed to DL (of course if you don't pay, you'd better not DL :þ).
It really made some waves in the assembly, and while there's usually the left wing against the right wing, feelings were mixed on this question, which shows how complicated it is.
Basically, what was so urgent and had to be settled in a few hours, has now gone out of hands of the minister.
Now you can see how great the democracy is : Not happy with the result, the music industry, oops... I mean the minister, wants to make another vote about those amendments.
The good thing is that the debate has reached another level.
For a while p2p users were discribed as dumb teen who DL cuz' it's free, period. Now, and as much as TV talks about it in a biased way in favor of the music industry*, it starts to be seen as what could be the next place for cultural content (people of all ages use p2p).
Also, a poll (by the association of french artists and singers) shows that 75% of them agree with the concept of "global licence", 12% disagree, 13% have no opinion.
Which shows the whole P2P subject should be studied in details (and particularly this global licence, as there are many different economic direction to analyse, from the singer, to the guy who makes the CD artwork^^, how to know what is DLed and how to redistribute the money, etc etc... differences between music and movies...), rather than settled in a hurry in a biased way, as this could be a whole new era for the aquisition of cultural content.
We'll see in january as the debate continues in a few weeks.
(*when you're interested in a subject, it's amaizing how you realise TV is biased when comparing to radio and newspaper. While this law was headlining all newspaper websites, they were talking about retarded christmass related subject on TV... I mean, they'd rather tell you what toy sold well than talk about this law... Am I watching the news or TV shopping FFS ?!)
Thoughts inspired by devil, posture inspired by angle :/
