The Sensible French

While it might be a bit much to take this early in the morning, I really do mean that.

There's two sides to this story: the nonsensical and the sensible.

First for the nonsensical:

A schoolteacher in France has been fined 10,200 euros (£7,033) for illegally swapping hundreds of music albums on the internet. The 28-year-old man must pay the money to copyright companies, in a decision aimed at deterring others.

Officials said he was one of the worst offenders for sharing music online, making available up to 10,000 songs.

{...}He also had his computer confiscated and was ordered to take out newspaper advertisements announcing the verdict and punishment.

Poor guy.

Now for the sensible part.

{...}The court case came as 70 musicians, academics and politicians signed a petition calling for a halt to legal action against people who download music for their own use.

"Like at least eight million other French people, we have also downloaded music online and are thus part of a growing number of 'criminals'. We ask that these absurd lawsuits stop," the petition published in the Nouvel Observateur states. {...}

As Mike from TechDirt says,

{...}Either way, as more musicians seem to be recognizing that unauthorized distribution is actually good for them, the claims from the recording industry that they're doing this to protect musicians is looking increasingly weak.

Now if only Metallica, et.al. would jump on that bus.

Posted by Kathy at February 4, 2005 09:51 AM