France bans online Heineken ads
p2pnet news | Advertising:- In a radio advertisement, famed Danish humorist/pianist Victor Borge once promised us Heineken beer could reach parts other beers couldn’t reach.
But soon, there’s one part it won’t be able to get to —- the Net. In France.
In what was possibly its first online excursion, “2004 will be the year digital music takes off and Heineken is proud to work with a pioneer like RealNetworks to deliver the best digital music experience to consumers,” burbled Heineken Steve Davis.
That was in the US.
Now, in France, a court has ordered the company to take down beer ads from its French site within three weeks .
“Confirming a lower court decision, the Paris court of appeal upheld a plea from a French anti-alcoholism body that Heineken was in breach of the so-called Evin Law, which outlawed alcohol adverts on television in 1991,” says Agency France-Presse, going on that under Evin, alcohol ads are only legal in the print media, on the radio and in sales outlets.
“Heineken had argued that the telephone – and by extension the Internet – was not covered by the ban,” says AFP, adding:
“But the court agreed with the National Association for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Addiction (ANPAA) that alcohol ads on the Internet – since not explicitly allowed under the law – were illegal.”
Also See:
proud to work – Heineken and RealNetworks, January 9, 2004
Agency France-Presse – French court rules online alcohol ads illegal, February 14, 2008 a
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February 16th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
I don’t care about Heineken but I find this rather weird for a Country that always brag beeing the country with the most freedom in the world! (Blink! Blnk! Blink!)
In an other world in France what is not allowed is forbiden.
Welcome to France the country were almost every thing is forbiden and illegal!
Good luck to the French with that!
Is it legal to breath at least?
Fortunatly in the US the constitution forbid that and I am happy I am not living in France even with piece of shit of Bush in power!
February 16th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
There are no truly free countries. Corrupt governments pander to big business and force through oppressive legislation.
If you don’t believe me:
(1) The US DMCA.
(2) France enacts laws to arbitrarily disable a individuals network access. This gives them free reign to do whatever they like, including disabling ISP accounts upon request of the entertainment cartels.
(3) UK internet government committee threatens to force ISP copyright enforcement responsibility through legislation. And now that france has done something similar, they will likely follow suit.
(4) Canada is trying to force through a DMCA style law. Though they deny this at every opportunity. As far as the government is concerned, this is a forgone conclusion; Only the wording is left to be resolved.
(5) Swedish government colludes with US and local entertainment cartel representatives / lobbyists to raid and seize the servers of a swedish ISP, which also includes the piratebay’s server. Swedish government / entertainment cartel / WIPO conspiracy exposed by swedish media.
It isn’t a pretty picture for sure. But when viewed as a whole, it’s clear that democratic governments around the world are just as corrupt and self serving as their despotic and dictatorial counterparts in the developing world. You could argue that at least the despots are capable of resisting the influence of the entertainment cartels, unlike the weak democracies.
Surrendering all decision making to one political party with dubious intentions and corporate sponsorship; The fidelity of such a government will always be uncertain.
Creating a new form of government in which citizens participate in decision making is the only recourse for this problem.
February 17th, 2008 at 3:22 am
The problem is that capitalism is going too far and corporation are too big and haver to much power.
We have to wake down some of these monstruous business that are corrupting our governenement.
But At least in the US we have the constitution as a guide and any constitutional violation such as the DMCA or the patriot act is a dangerous games these parasites are playing because it discredit the law and the governements. We know what’s hapen when authority lost it’s credibility: Insurection.