Originally published January 22 2006
France cracks down with anti-piracy laws
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Emergency legislation would make software producers liable if their software is used for illicit purposes, and would require digital-rights management software in their products. More than one in three copies of software in use in Europe is unlicensed.
Internet downloaders could face jail sentences and software makers may be required to add anti-copying technology to products distributed in France under draft legislation that's expected to go to a vote this week.
A last minute fight over the bill broke out late Wednesday, when an amendment was introduced that would legalize peer-to-peer downloads instead of criminalizing them.
The so-called emergency legislation would require software makers to include digital-rights management, or DRM, software in their products, according to a draft (.pdf) of the proposed legislation seen by Wired News.
Software makers could be liable if their software is used for illicit purposes -- whether the software was designed for peer-to-peer networks or office intranets.
French legislators are also calling for three-year jail sentences and fines of 300,000 euros for illegally copying music, video or any other copyright-protected files.
Laws could also be set in place mandating that ISPs shut down accounts of suspected pirates.
"The software companies and consumer-electronic companies are certainly not willing to finance creating special software that involves these special protection keys," he said.
"I simply cannot imagine that something like that could happen for just one European country that is not even being discussed on a European level."
The language of the proposal reflects lobbying pressure from French media giant Vivendi Universal and other recording industry interests, said Loic Dachary, founder of the eucd.info watch group and treasurer of The Free Software Foundation in France.
The industry considers the imposition of strong, proactive measures on software makers necessary to thwart pirates, especially in Europe where more than one in three copies of software in use is unlicensed, said Ga�lle Prigent-Protasov, a vice president of software maker Aladdin.
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