french
French Youth Make Piracy a “National Sport”
Now boasts having one of the highest rates of software piracy in the European Union as the country’s youth challenge one another “to crack the most elaborate software programs” and rebel against the most repressive copyright legislation in the world. France appears be suffering from a delicious bit of irony these days with news that piracy in some areas of the country is almost double the rate of other members of the European Union. For after having formally passed the controversial “Creation and Internet” law last September the country has been on the fast track to give authorities the power to disconnect illegal file-sharers from the Internet, and would seem an unlikely place for piracy levels to be highest.
Continue reading »French culture minister flames Google over book scan plan
Mitterrand tells Google to go conjugate itself Frederic Mitterrand delivered another Francoslap to Google yesterday, threatening to eject the book-devouring search giant from the effort to digitise the French National Library.…
Continue reading »France considering "Google tax" to support dying media
Companies that leverage the Internet to advertise to citizens should help support industries that are suffering thanks to the Internet, according to some in France. The French government is considering a tax on companies that advertise online as a way to prop up creative industries that are having trouble keeping up with the digital world, such as musicians and publishers. Unsurprisingly, the proposal has drawn criticism from those who believe governments should not be in the business of punishing Internet success and instead embrace the new things it has to offer.
Continue reading »Hadopi three strikes law hits another hurdle
Data protection agency says ‘Non’ The controversial French ‘three strikes’ law has hit yet another delay – it has failed to win approval from the French data protection agency.…
Continue reading »Brief: France three strikes law delayed by govt’s own data watchdog
France’s “three strikes” law threatening Internet disconnections for repeat copyright infringers should have been in effect by now, but it hasn’t yet become law due to one French privacy agency. The country’s Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés (CNIL) was created in the late 1970s in order to vet new legislation for privacy concerns, and to keep an eye on government databases and data collection efforts. CNIL’s somewhat dramatic motto is “information technology must respect the human identity, the human rights, privacy and liberties”—and CNIL is not yet convinced that the new three strikes law will do that.
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