France on track to legalize P2P downloading

[Capitalist Pig]

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jh...log/GetContent

PARIS (Hollywood Reporter) - France's lower house of parliament has voted to legalize peer-to-peer file-sharing of films and music on the Internet, unleashing a wave of protest from the country's film, audiovisual and music industry organizations.

If the measure passes in the upper house, France would become the first country to legalize peer-to-peer downloading at a time when most Western nations are battling to curb illegal downloading on the Internet.

Is France on to something? Should people push for the legalization of P2P? Or should P2P be strictly prohibited everywhere? It seems pretty fruitless to try to regulate it. It will just send the community "underground," and there are already plenty of underground file sharing communities (mostly with a BitTorrent focus) out there right now.

[Allas]

Seems to me that France is, once again, taking the easy way out. They know they will catch alot of heat from film companies, the music industry, etc. for a while and then it will die down. Where as if they tried to regulate it they would be fighting a losing battle.

Dont get me wrong, i think France is definetly onto something - nevermind that it's for all the wrong reasons.

[Capitalist Pig]

European law, from what I understand, is a little vague on the issue of P2P sharing. It's why file sharing communities, like the Swedish-based ThePirateBay.org, can operate completely out in the open. France taking one step further to render it completely legal seems more a formality, or perhaps some French bureaucrat's political statement. TPB's immunity to the courts could also stem from a technicality, in that BitTorrent downloads do not require a "central server" to draw the file from. The server just acts as a relay for all the users connected to communicate over. So because the file, whatever it may be, is not actually hosted on the server, but on each individual's computer, there's nothing that can be done to TPB -- not even for facilitating. This is the gist I get from reading their (often humorous) legal letters.

Personally, I find the objections involving copyright law to hold the least amount of water. Copyrights and patents, after all, are actually a violation of property rights.

[SteveA]

They should have never made it illegal in the first place.

Something this article is missing altogether is that though France might become the first country to legalize peer to peer downloading, I'm certain there are many countries that never declared it illegal in the first place. Kudos to France. Industries need to find a better way to deal with their issues than offloading the costs onto everyone else, including uninvolved bystanders.

[grandpa]

They should have never made it illegal in the first place.
Something this article is missing altogether is that though France might become the first country to legalize peer to peer downloading, I'm certain there are many countries that never declared it illegal in the first place.

I think many European countries have it legalized. As I've said before, if a musician doesn't want people sharing his/her music, it should not be put out there. It's simply inevitable.

Grandpa h.

[Mr.Vicchio]

I find this a disturbing idea. File Sharing is fine... if it's your file of something you made.

If someone ELSE made it, Song/Movie/Game for profit, and you are giving it away... that's just not right.

Of course, for all of you "But it's just a song/Movie/Game" crowd, consider something for a moment, please. Why do people make these things? Mostly for love, but also for money. This is open stealing, and makes creating movies/games/movies less lucrative, thus less worth spending the time, effort and money to create.

After all, why spend millions to make something when instead of getting $$ in return people can jsut download it?


I will laugh though, unlike songs and movies, game companies are getting smart to this and using systems like Steam to prevent pirates from stealing ffrom them. I approve of that.

[grandpa]

I find this a disturbing idea. File Sharing is fine... if it's your file of something you made.
If someone ELSE made it, Song/Movie/Game for profit, and you are giving it away... that's just not right.
Of course, for all of you "But it's just a song/Movie/Game" crowd, consider something for a moment, please. Why do people make these things? Mostly for love, but also for money. This is open stealing, and makes creating movies/games/movies less lucrative, thus less worth spending the time, effort and money to create.
After all, why spend millions to make something when instead of getting $$ in return people can jsut download it?
I will laugh though, unlike songs and movies, game companies are getting smart to this and using systems like Steam to prevent pirates from stealing ffrom them. I approve of that.

I don't think it should be illegal to share songs with people.

Grandpa h.

[Mr.Vicchio]

Grandpa h, I have a feeling if you were a singer/artist you'd feel differently. But hey, you're not, so why should you care about that.

I am... working on getting a script sold, yeah, no shit hollywood calibur movie script, and I would like to know that if said script ever made it onto the big screen, I wouldn't be able to Down Load it for free from some punks website two days after it's released.
France would be one place, should I ever have the power, that I would ask not have the movie dubed for, if they made file sharing legal.

[grandpa]

Grandpa h, I have a feeling if you were a singer/artist you'd feel differently. But hey, you're not, so why should you care about that.

I actually am a musician. Do a little research before you make such claims, Vicchio.

Grandpa h.

[Matt W]

France would be one place, should I ever have the power, that I would ask not have the movie dubed for, if they made file sharing legal.

You wouldn't have the power. Cannes, remember?

[Chris the Chees]

I find this a disturbing idea. File Sharing is fine... if it's your file of something you made.

If someone ELSE made it, Song/Movie/Game for profit, and you are giving it away... that's just not right.

Of course, for all of you "But it's just a song/Movie/Game" crowd, consider something for a moment, please. Why do people make these things? Mostly for love, but also for money. This is open stealing, and makes creating movies/games/movies less lucrative, thus less worth spending the time, effort and money to create.

After all, why spend millions to make something when instead of getting $$ in return people can jsut download it?


I will laugh though, unlike songs and movies, game companies are getting smart to this and using systems like Steam to prevent pirates from stealing ffrom them. I approve of that.

Have considered that free access to tracks actually has increased album sales?

While games, movies, etc are not as popular as music in the downloading world. Movies, because the files are big 700 MB +, and thats usually dire quality, to get even a reasonable quality file your looking 1.5 gb, minimum. Even with the advancement of home internet technology, most people don't have the time and patience for that, which is why games are discounted as well. Its only when everyone is on a 10mb connection that piracy of such material will take of on a scale similar to music.

[bishop]

Have considered that free access to tracks actually has increased album sales?

or how p2p technology has created all sorts of new products, companies and jobs.. how many investors grew insanely rich off of things like the ipod's success - which would never have happened had it not have been for illegal p2p downloading?