French anti-file sharing law targets children
p2pnet news view | Kids & Kartels:- Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music launched a long-term and carefully orchestrated blitzkrieg against their own customers to gain control of the Internet as a music distribution and marketing vehicle, eventually admitting they’d achieved little more than further alienating actual and potential consumers of corporate product.
Six years on, they switched their focus to ISPs, hoping to suborn the largest providers in countries such as America, New Zealand and France (with its so-called HADOPI bill) to name three, as corporate copyright enforcers, paid for by the companies themselves.
New Zealand, the first to cave in, now appears to be having serious second thoughts.
But although the end result is by no means certain, France is apparently determined to institute a plan whereby local ISPs will both supply the Big 4 with potentially incriminating evidence against their own customers, and act directly against them.
French economist and lecturer Jacques Attali, former special advisor to president François Mitterrand who in 1984 created the European research programm Eurêka (MP3 format), and author of Noise: The Political Economy of Music.
He also wrote an Open Letter to Artists in the French edition of Slate in which he kicks off with, “Many artists seem not to accept that the Internet opens up tremendous creative possibilities for them, that the proposed French bill called HADOPI, which seeks to ban free downloading, does not seek to protect them but to reserve most of the value they produce for select companies.
“Few recognize that another system of payment, based on the infinitely layered nature of the internet, would assure them better profits and greatly improved social recognition if they take hold of it before the business who are now fighting against them rally first.”
Click here for the complete French version, or here for a Google translation.
The war against our kids
To slightly paraphrase Alan McCright, aka Curmudgeon At Large, writing about the situation in New Zealand, do governments represent and protect their citizens? Or do they, “despotically chuck the peoples’ rights out the window in order to placate grumbling, paranoid, billion-dollar corporations whose sole reason for existence is to make money? Should the rights of such corporations be protected? Certainly! But NEVER at the expense of the basic civil rights of the people which a government is required to protect! Such corporations are acting purely in self-interest.”
The French are famous for idolising their kids but nonetheless, in part, the Hadopi bill, “also seeks, outrageously,” to indoctrinate school children,” says Attali.
“Am I exaggerating?” – he asks, suggesting anyone with doubts should read Read Article 9/bis/(nouveau)/: Article L . 312-9 of the education code, which ends with »»»
Within this framework, they are informed, predominantly in the context of software patents and internet for middle-school students, of the risks related to the usage of public communication services online, on the dangers of downloading and the illegal availability of cultural works for artistic creation, as well as the penalties incurred in the case of a breach of trust as defined in article L.336-3 of the intellectual property code and counterfeit offense. Instructors are also informed. [I'll try and get another translation of this - Jon]
Attali adds:
“It is ridiculous not to understand that internet access constitutes a fundamental right, and that schools must teach children how to make use of it and not distrust it. And if schools endeavor to do the opposite, they will not succeed but continue instead to accelerate the discredit that is threatening them.”
But tragically, this is nothing new.
Every man, woman and chlld who likes music is a potential Vivendi Universal (France), Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain, and Warner Music (US) victim, but clearly, children — the consumers of the future — are the targets with the highest priority.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
March, 2009
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March 25th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
The RIAA with their stupidity will make people use p2p software that no longer need ISP.
Once this is achieve people will abondon internet for wifi pc to pc networks. These networks already exist and will merge wordlwide into a new faster safer and decentralized internet once enought people joint.
Then the AT&T Comcast and other corporation of criminals can fuck themselves with their cable and fiber optics shit.
No more ISPs!
So what are they going to do next?
Of course this is a mute point because by the time this new type of network rise the entairtainement parasites will be long dead.
Meanwhile people can use software such as Tor to protect their constitutional right to privacy ( Amendment 2) by using software such as Tor or open proxies. This is free. And let’s pray for ther innocent victims.