Coat of Arms of the French Republic

DADVSI is the abbreviation of the French language Loi sur le droit d'auteur et les droits voisins dans la société de l'information (in English: "law on author's rights and related rights in the information society"). It is a bill reforming French copyright law, mostly in order to implement the 2001 European directive on copyright (known as EUCD), which in turn implements a 1996 WIPO treaty. Image File history File links France_coa. ... Image File history File links France_coa. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ... An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... This article is about a new type of society called an Information Society. ... A bill can be one of: Look up bill in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The droit dauteur, or French copyright law, developed in the eighteenth century, at the same time as copyright developed in the United Kingdom. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... The European Union (EU) directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, commonly known as the EU Copyright Directive or short EUCD, is the EUs implementation... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations, and has as its core objectives the promotion of creative intellectual activity and the facilitation of the transfer of technology related to intellectual property to the developing countries in order to accelerate economic, social...

The law, despite being initially dismissed as highly technical and of no concern to the average person, generated considerable controversy when it was examined by the French Parliament, between December 2005 and June 30, 2006, when it was finally voted through by both houses. However, the bill has not yet been signed into law by the President of the Republic, which he will probably do after a constitutional challenge has been resolved. The Parlement of France is bicameral, and consists of the National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and the Senate (Sénat). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 184 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Most of the bill focuses on the repression of the exchange of copyrighted works over peer-to-peer networks and the prohibition of the circumvention of digital rights management (DRM) protection measures. Other sections deal with other matters related to copyright, including rights on resale of works of art, copyright for works produced by government employees, exceptions to copyright for education and the handicapped, etc. A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ... Digital Rights Management (also called Digital Restrictions Management and often abbreviated to DRM) is the umbrella term referring to any of several technologies used to enforce pre-defined policies for controlling access to digital data (such as software, music, movies) and hardware. ...

The law was highly controversial within France for it could significantly hamper free software, and also may significantly restrict the right to make copies of copyrighted works for private use. This article is about Free Software as defined by the sociopolitical Free Software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ...

Some amendments to the bill, not present in the original version, might require Apple Computer and other manufacturers to share their proprietary digital music formats with other software developers. Because of this, a controversy arose and the DADVSI bill was sometimes referred to as the iTunes law in the English-language press (see Interoperability and Apple controversy), although the law is not referred to in this way in France. Apple Computer, Inc. ... iTunes is a proprietary digital media player application, launched by Apple Computer on January 9, 2001 at MacWorld Expo San Francisco 2001[1], for playing and organizing digital music and video files. ...

Legal background

The title of the DADVSI law refers to droit d'auteur et droits voisins (author's rights and related rights). Author's rights, in French law, have two components:

• economic rights (droits patrimoniaux): the exclusive right of the author of a work of the mind to reveal this work according to his or her conditions (that is, for instance, by ceding this right to a publisher);
• moral rights (droits moraux), such as: the right for the author to obtain redress against others claiming to be the author of the work; these rights cannot be ceded.

This concept is reflected in the Berne Convention on Copyright. Copyright is a related concept, but pertains to Anglo-American law; one notable difference is that copyright does not generally involve moral rights. The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement about copyright, which was first adopted in Berne, Switzerland in 1886. ... Copyright symbol. ...

The legal clauses governing author's rights and related rights form the first book of the French Code of Intellectual Property (CPI). This article will thus refer to articles from this code as CPI Lnnn.

The notion of author extends to that of composer (of a music), playwright, painter, photographer, etc., though the law makes it a requirement that the work should be original (or show some supplemental originality, in the case of a derived work) in order to be protected. In practise, often, authors cede their rights to publishers, which then enforce the "exclusive right"; sometimes, authors are members of societies enforcing their rights on their behalf.

Performers and publishers of audio records enjoy "related rights". These follow different rules, and have a shorter duration than the rights of authors. In practise, often, performers cede their rights to publishers, or have them enforced by societies.

The exclusive right of the author is not absolute. According to WIPO treaties, local legislation may make exceptions to exclusive copyrights only if these exceptions fulfill a "three-step test": limitations and exceptions The Berne three-step test is a set of constraints on the limitations and exceptions to exclusive rights under national copyright laws. ...

• should only concern special cases;
• should not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work;
• should not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the right holder.

This is how, for instance, the US doctrine of fair use is justified with respect to copyright treaties. The 2001 European Directive on Copyright proposes a list of 10 exceptions to copyright that member states can choose to implement or not to implement, in addition to one whose implementation is compulsory (which makes an exception for temporary technical copies, meant to address Web caches and similar systems). Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. ... Web caching is the caching of web documents (HTML pages, images, etc. ...

Exceptions to copyright in French law are defined in CPI L122-5. Among them is the notable exception for private copy: French residents may freely make copies of works (except software) for their private use, and freely display those works within their family circle (which is interpreted to include friends), without the agreement of the copyright holder. However, French law includes a "tax on private copy" meant to address the losses incurred by copyright holders; this tax is levied on blank media (audio and video cassettes, CD, DVD, as well as memory and hard drives in portable media players). Normally, taxation is reserved for legislation, which is normally voted by the French Parliament, but a statute endowed an ad-hoc commission to set the rates and conditions for this tax.

European directives are generally not directly enforceable in EU member states. They first have to be transposed into local law, generally by an act of the legislature of the member state. While they give a general framework and impose some options, they may leave significant leeway; in the case of EUCD, for instance, the directive gives a list of optional copyright exceptions, and mandates appropriate legal protection for DRMs, without defining what constitutes an appropriate protection. Member states have to transpose directives within reasonable delays, or they face action by the European Commission. There may be subsequent litigation before the European Court of Justice if a transposition is deemed to be inadequate. The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ... The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is formally known as the Court of Justice of the European Communities, i. ...

In March 2006, the Cour de cassation, France's highest court in civil and criminal matters, ruled in a decision nicknamed Mulholland Drive (from the name of a litigious DVD). It quashed a decision by the appeals court of Versailles that ruled that Digital rights management techniques that contradicted the "right to private copy" were illegal. Legal scholars noted the following: The Court of Cassation (Cour de cassation in French) is the main court of last resort in France. ... Mulholland Drive (often abbreviated Mulholland Dr.) is a motion picture released in 2001 and directed by David Lynch. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Digital Rights Management (also called Digital Restrictions Management and often abbreviated to DRM) is the umbrella term referring to any of several technologies used to enforce pre-defined policies for controlling access to digital data (such as software, music, movies) and hardware. ...

• the manner in which the decision was presented indicated that it was a decision meant to establish doctrine (following the civil law tradition, French courts are theoretically prohibited from judging in the general case so as to establish case law, but in practise the Cour de cassation does so in certain decisions).
• the decision cited the "test in three steps" and the yet untransposed European directive on copyright as source of doctrine, whereas, some legal scholars argue, it is up to the legislature to decide how to apply such principles when making law, not to the courts.

In response, an amendment was added to the DADVSI law by the National Assembly, which established a "right to the exception for private copy." However, the scope of this right is unclear, since it is to be decided by a "college of mediators." Civil law is a codified system of law that sets out a comprehensive system of rules that are applied and interpreted by judges. ... Case law (precedential law) is the body of judge-made law and legal decisions that interprets prior case law, statutes and other legal authority -- including doctrinal writings by legal scholars such as the Corpus Juris Secundum, Halsburys Laws of England or the doctinal writings found in the Recueil Dalloz...

The crux of the discussion on private copy is the nature of this so-called "right". One can interpret it weakly, as an exception to the general possibility for copyright holders to prevent any unauthorized distribution of their work, or strongly, as a prohibition for copyright holders to use technical means for preventing private, legal, copy.

The "three-step test" was also copied into article "1 bis" of the draft law, which updates CPI L122-5. See Copyright exceptions.

Within this article, we shall sometimes use felony as a translation of the French délit: roughly, a broad category of crimes, such as theft, punishable by prison sentences not exceesding 10 years, but not including petty crimes (contraventions), which we shall translate as misdemeanors. A felony, in many common law legal systems, is the term for a very serious crime, whereas misdemeanors are considered to be less serious offenses. ... Everyday instance of theft: the bike which fits on this wheel has disappeared. ...

Politics

The DADVSI law unexpectedly rose as a somewhat well-publicized topic in national French politics in December 2005, with the vote of the so-called "global license". Two major presidential candidates personally intervened in the controversy, while others made declarations.

Legislative process

Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Minister of Culture

The initial draft of the law was proposed in 2003 by then Minister of Culture Jean-Jacques Aillagon (UMP). Due to various circumstances, including the replacement of Aillagon by Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres (UMP), the bill was presented very late to the French Parliament, and was initially to be examined in the National Assembly on December 20, 21 and 22, 2005, just before the Christmas holiday. The government (the cabinet of ministers, as represented by the Minister of culture) had declared the law to be urgent, which means, under the Constitution of France, that the law would be examined only once by each house of Parliament; the reason given by the minister was that France was threatened by the European Commission with sanctions if it failed to implement the directive. Image File history File links RDDV_img_047. ... Image File history File links RDDV_img_047. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Minister of Culture and Communications is, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of national museums and monuments; promoting and protecting the arts (visual, plastic, theatrical, musical, dance, architectural, literary, televisual and cinematographic) in France and abroad; and managing the national archives and regional maisons de... Jean-Jacques Aillagon (born October 2, 1946, Metz) is a French politician, a close confident to Jacques Chirac and member of the RPR - Rally for the Republic political party. ... Union for a Popular Movement Uridine monophosphate, cf. ... Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres is Frances Minister of Culture since 2003. ... The Parlement of France is bicameral, and consists of the National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and the Senate (Sénat). ... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The current Constitution of France was adopted on October 4, 1958, and has been amended 17 times, most recently on March 28, 2003. ... The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ...

Despite being initially presented as a technical text, the law became hotly controversial, being perceived as criminalising Internet users for sending files of copyrighted works to each others, as well as being a threat to free software. It was also feared that it would mean, in practise, the end to the right of doing a "private copy": for instance, making a copy of a record onto digital magnetic tape for the private use of the owner of the record, which is currently authorized by CPI L122-5. ^[1]. This article is about Free Software as defined by the sociopolitical Free Software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... Compact audio cassette Magnetic tape is a non-volatile storage medium consisting of a magnetic coating on a thin plastic strip. ...

The examination of the draft law by the National Assembly, initially seen as a quick matter preceeding the Christmas break, was marred by several incidents, the best known being the vote of the first amendment of the "global license" (see below). Supplemental sittings of the Assembly had to be alloted in March in order for the law to be fully examined.

Prior to the examination of the law by the assembly in session, the draft bill had been sent to the Commission of Law, without any review by the Commission of Cultural Affairs, as would have been expected of a text presented by the Minister of Culture and pertaining to artistic works; this procedure was deplored by some deputies. Deputy Christian Vanneste was commissioned to report on the law.

Deputies from the opposition (PS, PCF, Greens) as well as the junior majority coalition partner UDF deplored that such a highly complex law was being rushed through Parliament. On December 21, then supported a motion for sending the draft law back to examination in parliamentary commission. However, the Minister of Culture opposed the move, stating that he hoped that the "solid parliamentarians from UMP" would not vote the motion [1] — a move interpreted as a quasi-order to the deputies from his party not to vote the motion. The emblem of the French Socialist Party The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. ... The French Communist Party (French: Parti communiste français or PCF) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. ... Les Verts (the Greens) is a Green Party in France. ... The Union for French Democracy, also known by its French acronym UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française), is a French centrist political party. ...

An amended draft law was approved by the National Assembly on March 21, 2006, by 296 votes for against 193. The UMP (right-wing), which has the absolute majority at the National Assembly, voted in favour, while the left voted against it. MPs of the center-right UDF voted either against the text or abstained themselves ^[2]. March 21 is the 80th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (81st in leap years). ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Union for a Popular Movement, initially named the Union for a Presidential Majority, and in both cases also known by its French acronym UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire and Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle, respectively) is a French right-wing, conservative political party. ... Absolute majority is a supermajoritarian voting requirement which is stricter than a simple majority. ... The Palais Bourbon, front The French National Assembly (French: Assemblée nationale) is one of the two houses of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. ... The Union for French Democracy, also known by its French acronym UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française), is a French centrist political party. ... Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not goes to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, isnt absent during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. ...

The Senate sent the bill before the Commission of Cultural Affairs, which commissioned Senator Michel Thollière to report on it; the Commission heard Minister de Vabres on April 4. The Commission recommended a number of amendments. The Senate examined the law in session on May 4, 9, and 10, 2006, and adopted a number of amendments. The Senate amphitheater in the Luxembourg Palace The Senate (in French :le Sénat) is the upper house of the Parliament of France. ...

There was still considerably uncertainty on the future of the bill. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin had the choice between: letting the text go back before the National Assembly, then before the Senate for another round of examination; or maintaining that the text is urgent and sending it before a mixed commission from both houses of the French Parliament, which would draft a compromise version to be sent both houses to be voted upon, with the Assembly being able to have a final say. Minister of Culture Donnedieu de Vabres had promised that he would have the law sent for another reading by both houses if the differences between the texts adopted by the Assembly and the Senate were too great. He contends that those differences between the texts are small enough that the text can be sent before a mixed commission; however, some members of Parliament disagree. The bill was rumored to be scheduled to be examined by the mixed commission on May 30, but in the end was not. The Prime Minister of France (Premier ministre de la France) is the functional head of the Cabinet of France. ... Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (born 14 November 1953 in Rabat, Morocco) simply known as Dominique de Villepin ( — , is a French diplomat and politician. ...

On June 15, 2006, despite the request by 20 UMP deputies that the text should be sent to the National Assembly again, the government announced that it would send the bill before the mixed commission on June 22. [2][3] The text will then be sent before both houses for final approval.

On June 22, in the morning, the mixed commission met. However, the Socialist members soon quit, claiming that the commission was a parody of democracy after discovering during the meeting 55 amendments hardening the Senate text. [4]

Both houses of Parliament finally approved the bill on June 30, the last day of the Parliamentary session. UMP voted in favour, the Communists and Socialists against, and UDF split over it between those voting against and those abstaining from voting. Socialist deputies announced they would bring a recourse before the Constitutional council; president of the UDF François Bayrou also announced that he saw a number of constitutionality problems with the law.

After the final parliamentary vote, the law will be submitted to President Jacques Chirac for signature; however, since a number of parliamentarians have announced that they wish to get constitutional review on the law, it is likely that the law will be submitted to the Constitutional Council before presidential signature. The President of France, known officially as the President of the Republic (Président de la République in French), is Frances elected Head of State. ... Jacques René Chirac (born November 29, 1932), French politician, is President of the French Republic. ... A republican guard giving directions to visitors at the front entrance of the Constitutional Council The Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel) was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. ...

Political importance

At first sight, the DADVSI law was not meant to be a disputed legal text: it deals with fairly technical legal points. It was, however, turned into a political hot topic featured in major newspapers and national television.

The first draft of the DADVSI law criminalized peer-to-peer exchanges of copyrighted works (or, more precisely, copyrighted works whose licenses did not allow such exchanges). The case was made in Parliament that millions of French Internet users, especially among the young, currently traded files on computer networks and that it was thus unrealistic to turn them into felons. Since subsequent reading coincided with the examination of a controversial youth workforce clause known as the CPE, the opposition argued that the government was at war with the youth. Demonstration against CPE, March 18, 2006, Paris The Contrat première embauche (CPE), translated first employment contract (although it may not be a first employment contract for the employee), is a proposed French law set to take effect in April 2006 that gives employers the right to fire without justification...

The DADVSI law was used as a platform for various groups or parties for demonstrating opposition to the government policies:

• Deputies for the opposition French Socialist Party supported an alternative scheme known as the "global license", despite the party's divisions on the issue. They denounced how the government was repressive, especially against the younger population.
• François Bayrou, president of the center-right party Union for French Democracy (UDF), a junior member of the ruling coalition, used the opportunity to distance itself from the policies of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) ruling party.
• Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, a eurosceptic member of the UMP majority party, distanced himself from the policies of the government and opposed an "unenforceable law".
• Christine Boutin, a member of the UMP majority party and former presidential candidate (French presidential election, 2002), with a political platform oriented towards "family values", claimed that it was absurd to turn millions of young people (possibly, some parliamentarians') into criminals.

Since Bayrou, Dupont-Aignan and Boutin are probable contenders in the 2007 presidential election, one may argue that DADVSI was one of the first rounds of the presidential campaign. The emblem of the French Socialist Party The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. ... -1... The Union for French Democracy, also known by its French acronym UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française), is a French centrist political party. ... The Union for a Popular Movement (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire), initially named the Union for the Presidential Majority (Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle), and more usually known from its French acronym as simply the UMP, is the main French conservative political party of the right-wing. ... Euroscepticism is scepticism about, or disagreement with, the purposes of the European Union, sometimes coupled with a desire to preserve national sovereignty. ... Christine Boutin (born in Levroux, Indre, France on February 6, 1944) is a French politician. ... // Second Round First Round General Summary On May 1, Labour Day, the yearly demonstrations for workers rights were compounded by protests against Jean-Marie Le Pen. ... The 2007 French presidential election will herald the first contest since Frances rejection of the European constitution in May 2005. ...

Lobbying

Some members of the French parliament, as well as other observers, publicly decried intense lobbying on the part of various groups and industries. Bernard Carayon, UMP deputy for the Tarn département, denounced lobbying, pressures and even blackmail on the part of certain groups. Alain Suguenot, a supporter of the global license, UMP deputy for the Côte d'Or département, hinted that some groups or societies supporting spectacles had threatened to withdraw their support to spectacles in the consistuencies of deputies voting in favour of the global license; Suguenot, who is also mayor of the town of Beaune, indicated that his town would no longer support a cinema festival and would replace it by something related to computing and Internet technologies. For other uses, see Tarn (disambiguation). ... The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France, roughly analogous to British counties. ... For other uses, see Côte dOr (disambiguation). ... Beaune is a commune in eastern France, a sub-prefecture of the Côte dOr département, in the Burgundy région. ...

Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres was criticized for being too close to some industry groups.

• At the beginning of the DADVSI discussion in December, Donnedieu de Vabres organised a demonstration of commercial music download platforms inside a room of the National Assembly, where deputies were given a free account with a 10€ credit. Opposition deputy Christian Paul denounced this action and the demonstration was shut by president of the Assembly Jean-Louis Debré, who indicated that though he had authorized the demonstration he had not authorized it to go in this manner.
• The Odebi league denounced the fact that one of the main aides of Donnedieu de Vabres on this law, Martin Rogard, is the son of Pascal Rogard chief executive officer of one of the industry groups involved (the SACD, a group representing film makers), and an outspoken enemy of the "global license".

Pascal Rogard, in turn, denounced on his blog the action of "hidden lobbies" that, under the guise of defending the right to private copy or free software, were in reality against copyright and artistic creation. Jean-Louis Debré is a French politician. ...

Some amendments to the law (150/151, 267) were called by some parliamentarians, as well as some other observers, the "Vivendi Universal amendments", because they were allegedly inspired by the entertainment giant. The free software advocate group EUCD.info denounced the fact that the lobbyist for some industry group was allowed into the "four column hall", a room in the Assembly building whose access is normally restricted to deputies and journalists. Vivendi Universal (VU) is a French conglomerate active in media and communications with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications and the Internet. ...

Confusion

Minister Donnedieu de Vabres was criticized by parliamentarians for lack of preparation. For instance, François Bayrou, head of the center-right UDF party, criticised how the minister submitted a last minute pair of amendments of seven pages completely changing the criminal penalty system applicable to illegal copies of copyrighted material, and for creating a de facto "police of the Internet". He pointed out that modifications of such an importance should be examined in commission.-1...

On January 3, 2006, in his yearly speech of wishes addressed to the President of the Republic, president of the National Assembly Jean-Louis Debré (UMP) denounced the usage, by the government, of the procedure of urgency, which he claimed was used excessively often. He also denounced how the government frequently sent hastily redacted draft laws to Parliament, then had to send amendments in order to correct its own texts; specifically mentioning DADVSI, he deplored that the government had sent two four-page amendments in the middle of the examination of the text, alluding to the same amendments that Bayrou had denounced. [5] The President of France, known officially as the President of the Republic (Président de la République in French), is Frances elected Head of State. ... Jean-Louis Debré is a French politician. ...

In its March 15, 2006, edition, the Canard Enchaîné investigative weekly reported that Debré had complained that Donnedieu de Vabres was "a zero, who put us in the shit and, from the start, dragged us into an adventure". Le Canard enchaîné is a satirical newspaper published weekly in France, founded in 1915, featuring investigative journalism and leaks from sources inside the French government, the French political world and the French business world, as well as a large number of jokes and humoristic cartoons. ...

Protests and Internet actions

May 7, 2006, march

The EUCD.info group ran an Internet petition, which, as of June 2006, garnered 165,000 signatures. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2244x1660, 843 KB) Copyright © 2006 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: DADVSI Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2244x1660, 843 KB) Copyright © 2006 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: DADVSI Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Look up Petition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary A petition is a request to an authority, most commonly a government official or public entity. ...

Groups opposed to clauses in the law organised a variety of protest actions. The StopDRM group organised flash mobs. Various groups organized a march against new French copyright law on May 7, 2006, as the bill was at the Senate; the March ended with flowers being laid in memoriam of author's right. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Unrolling of the signature list near the offices of the French Prime Minister

On June 9, 2006, a delegation including Richard M. Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation, went to the Hotel Matignon to meet prime minister Dominique de Villepin; however, the prime minister and his advisors refused to meet them. The delegation protested the fact that they were turned away while business leaders such as Bill Gates from Microsoft got official reception. They laid down the list of 165,000 signatories of the EUCD.info petition in the gutter, as a sign of what they see as contempt for the concerns of ordinary citizens. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2236x1640, 639 KB) June 9, 2006: Richard M. Stallman and others unrolling the list of signatories of the EUCD.info petition against DRMs and the DADVSI law near the offices of French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2236x1640, 639 KB) June 9, 2006: Richard M. Stallman and others unrolling the list of signatories of the EUCD.info petition against DRMs and the DADVSI law near the offices of French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. ... Richard Matthew Stallman (RMS; born March 16, 1953) is the founder of the Free Software movement, the GNU project, the Free Software Foundation, and the League for Programming Freedom. ... The Free Software Foundation logo The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit organization founded in October 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement (free as in freedom), and in particular the GNU project. ... The Hôtel Matignon in Paris is the official residence of the Prime Minister of France. ... Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (born 14 November 1953 in Rabat, Morocco) simply known as Dominique de Villepin ( — , is a French diplomat and politician. ... William Henry Bill Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is the co-founder, chairman, former chief software architect, and former CEO of Microsoft Corporation. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is an international computer technology corporation with 2005 global annual sales of US$42. ...

On June 26, Stallman spoke against DADVSI at a free software business meeting organized by the City of Paris ("Paris, capitale du libre"); on June 28, he met presidential candidate Ségolène Royal. [6] Ségolène Royal Marie Ségolène Royal (born September 22, 1953 in Dakar, Sénégal) is a French politician, top presidential candidate according to French opinion poll and a prominent member of the Socialist Party. ...

The Odebi league campaigned against politicians who they claim supported the positions of the "major" record corporations. A campaign of Google bombing was made against Minister Donnedieu de Vabres: searching Google for ministre (minister) or blanchisseur (launderer) results in a news article about the conviction of Donnedieu de Vabres for money laundering. A Google bomb or Google wash is an attempt to influence the ranking of a given site in results returned by the Google search engine. ...

Repression of Internet copying of copyrighted works

The DADVSI law contains a number of articles meant to repress the copying of copyrighted music or videos through peer-to-peer networks over the Internet. A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ...

The initial version of the bill punished most acts related to illegal copying of copyrighted material, including working around anti-copy systems, as felony counterfeiting, with a maximal sentence of 3 years in prison and/or a 300,000€ fine. However, a number of parliamentarians contended that this was equivalent to criminalizing millions of Internet users, especially the young, and Minister Donnedieu de Vabres immediately introduced amendments known as "escalation": peer-to-peer users who copy files illegally would first be warned, then would be fined, and more strongly punished if repeat offenders. Escalation is the phenomenon of something getting worse step by step, for example a quarrel, or, notably, military presence and nuclear armament during the Cold War. ...

Finally, the choice was made to criminalize authors and publishers of software capable of unlocking copy protection system or copying copyrighted works over the Internet, while users would received much softer sentences.

Sharing of copyrighted works over peer-to-peer networks

In the current state of the law, CPI L335-2 and L335-5 punish as counterfeiting the act of publishing copyrighted works without the authorization of the rights holders, with a maximal sentence of 3 years in prison and/or a 300,000€ fine. A counterfeit is an imitation that is made with the intent to deceptively represent its content or origins. ...

Whether or not sharing files over a peer-to-peer network falls within the scope of this prohibition has been controversial. Some groups, such as the Audionautes, have contended that the act of receiving copyrighted works from Internet sites or peer-to-peer networks is an act of private copy, which is a valid exemption from copyright rules following from CPI L122-5. Courts have ruled in both directions, some convicting peer-to-peer users, some acquitting them. A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ...

Article 14 bis of the DADVSI law explicitly exempts from this regime the act of downloading a copyrighted work on a peer-to-peer network. This exemption is further extended to the act of making some copyrighted work available to the public without any commercial purpose, when this is an automatic result of the use of a peer-to-peer network for obtaining it; this clause was added because many peer-to-peer network automatically make downloaded contend available to other users, thus merely exempting downloads from the counterfeiting felony would not have been sufficient.

These acts, exempted from the counterfeiting felony charge, will be repressed as a lesser charge, with a fine to be defined by a decree (executive decision). Minister Donnedieu de Vabres has announced a 38€ fine for downloading acts, but it is yet unknown whether this would apply to any single file (thus a person with 1000 songs downloaded illegally would in theory owe a fine of 38,000€) or whether several downloads could be punished with a single fine. Decree is an order that has the force of law. ...

The "global license"

The project of global license, proposed in 2005, was abandoned later. It is not included in the voted version of the law.

One alternative proposal to the original draft law was, instead of criminalising peer-to-peer users, to make peer-to-peer exchanges legal, in exchange for a fee on broadband Internet subscriptions, which would go to fund the artists and authors. This is known as the "global license" or "legal license". A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively few servers. ...

No specific amount of fee was discussed in the law, but it was meant to be approximately €7 per month for a broadband connection. French broadband connections typically cost €30 a month for rates up to 16 megabits per second, digital TV and unlimited VoIP phone calls. IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ...

Proponents of the law contended that:

• The global license is a realistic measure in the long run. Internet users will anyway use peer-to-peer networks. There are already millions of peer-to-peer users, it's unreasonable to claim that they will be prosecuted. Instead of trying to revert this trend, unfruitfully, better tax it.
• The alternative is heavy-handed enforcement and intrusive Digital rights management (DRMs).
• The global license would provide a steady stream of revenue to authors and artists.

Opponents contended that: Digital Rights Management (also called Digital Restrictions Management and often abbreviated to DRM) is the umbrella term referring to any of several technologies used to enforce pre-defined policies for controlling access to digital data (such as software, music, movies) and hardware. ...

• The global license is a communist measure, while DRMs allow fine-grained, individual, remuneration of artists.
• There is no reliable method for apportioning the money raised through this method to artists. If polling methods are used, they may miss smaller artists.
• The global license is contrary to the "test in three steps" that must be verified by every exception to copyright.
• The global license would fail to provide enough revenue to authors and artists.

In the evening sitting of the Assembly on December 21, the first of the series of amendments establishing the global license (identical amendments 153 as proposed by UMP deputy Alain Suguenot and 154 as proposed by deputies from the French Socialist Party) was voted by a 30-to-28 margin [7], much to the dismay of Culture Minister Donnedieu de Vabres (seen blowing out of anger in the Assembly's video broadcast). This was the first time that a legislature anywhere had supported an alternative compensation system to broadly legalise P2P file sharing (one has existed briefly in Canada, but it was not supported by parliament). This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... The emblem of the French Socialist Party The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. ... Various alternative compensation systems (ACSes) have been proposed as ways to allow the widespread reproduction of digital copyrighted works while still paying the authors and copyright owners of those works. ...

The global license proved difficult to handle for the government. It was initially thought that the minister would request another examination of the controversial amendment by the Assembly; however, the head of the UMP group in the assembly, Bernard Accoyer, stated that the French Parliament had demonstrated that it was not a chambre d'enregistrement (a chamber for registering the wishes of the executive) and pointed out that the text was only at the beginning of its examination by Parliament, which has two houses, which seemed to suggest that he expected the amendment to be struck down in the Senate. [8]

The examination of the text by the National Assembly resumed in March. The Minister of Culture announced that the government would use its prerogative to withdrawn its own draft law in order to withdraw article 1 of the law, which was the article to which amendments 153/154 applied, and propose in its stead a "1 bis" article. This move was supported by President of the National Assembly Jean-Louis Debré, who exceptionally presided the sitting; Debré cited precedent for such actions to deputies questioning the constitutionality of the action. However, the next day, the government announced that it would not withdraw the article, following from a communication by president of the Constitutional Council Pierre Mazeaud that the move's constitutionality was unclear. The Assembly then proceeded with the remaining amendments to article 1, then, expectedly, voted down article 1, then examined article "1 bis". The "global license" was thus removed from the text. Jean-Louis Debré is a French politician. ... Pierre Mazeaud Pierre Mazeaud (born August 24, 1929 in Lyon) is a French jurist, politician and alpinist. ...

Criminalisation of DRM circumvention

Articles 13 and 14 of the law introduce a variety of criminal penalties for those working around DRM technical measures:

• A fine up to 3750€ is applicable for those who knowingly work around a DRM technical measure for reasons other than research, if this is not done using means procured from others.
• Prison sentences up to 6 months and/or fines up to 30000€ are applicable for those who supply others with means to work around technical measures, or who knowingly propose such means.
• Lesser fines will be subsequently introduced by an executive decree.

However, none of these penalties apply when the purpose of circumvention was interoperability, computer security or research. Decree is an order that has the force of law. ...

Interoperability and Apple controversy

The DADVSI law grants legal protection to Digital rights management "technical protection methods" (defined in article 7); that is, it contains clauses criminalizing circumvention of DRMs (articles 13 and 14). Digital Rights Management (also called Digital Restrictions Management and often abbreviated to DRM) is the umbrella term referring to any of several technologies used to enforce pre-defined policies for controlling access to digital data (such as software, music, movies) and hardware. ...

The initial draft law was heavily criticized for the vagueness and wide scope of the anti-circumvention clauses. It was feared that:

• These clauses could potentially outlaw any free software capable of reading DRM-using formats (music, video, or even text content); the fear was that free software implementing DRM would be construed to facilitate circumvention. Designers of software knowingly facilitating circumvention would, with the initial draft, face felony charges of counterfeiting with maximal penalties of a 300,000€ fine and/or 3 years in prison. Free software advocates thus concluded that the law would have a chilling effect on the development of free software in France, since any modern desktop system is supposed to be able to read music and video content, and the designers thereof would not be sure whether they could face felony charges.
• These clauses would allow designers of DRM systems to have competitors prosecuted by claiming that these competitors' systems facilitated circumvention of DRMs. This would, in effect, create a new kind of intellectual property, besides copyright and patents, while the purpose of the law is to protect the copyright of composer, artists, film-makers etc. and not grant new legal protections to DRM companies.
• These clauses would tie people to the provider of the music, since the DRM system of a music provider would only work with the players from this provider. This would in turn be an annoyance to customers, since content playable on one device would not be playable on another.
• The clauses would prevent investigation of possible security lapses in DRM systems, whereas Sony's Extended Copy Protection system was found to create computer security problems.

Since the personal computing software industry in France is heavily dominated by a few companies (such as Microsoft and Apple Computer), which also provide DRM systems, it was feared that the law would reinforce these dominant positions, and also prevent competition from free software. Politicians across all French political parties have declared free software to be important for France, since it provides competition in a field dominated by extra-European corporations. It is officially considered instrumental in controlling the IT expenses of public administrations. This article is about Free Software as defined by the sociopolitical Free Software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... A counterfeit is an imitation that is made with the intent to deceptively represent its content or origins. ... A chilling effect is a situation where speech or conduct is suppressed or limited by fear of penalization at the hands of an individual or group. ... XCP-Aurora Extended Copy Protection (XCP) is a software package developed by the British company First 4 Internet and sold as a copy protection or digital rights management (DRM) scheme for compact discs. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is an international computer technology corporation with 2005 global annual sales of US$42. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ...

Accordingly, a number of free software organizations (Free Software Foundation France, EUCD.info, Framasoft, APRIL, AFUL...) have lobbied so that the DADVSI law should not de facto prohibit making free software capable of reading formats protected by DRMs, including video and musics, and thus would make free operating systems unsuitable for personal use. They also noted that copyrighted works also include text, that formats such as PDF also have DRMs, and thus that the law could well exclude free software from desktop processing, since it could perhaps not read the same file formats as the main desktop suites. The Free Software Foundation logo The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit organization founded in October 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement (free as in freedom), and in particular the GNU project. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Politicians from several parties (among whom Alain Carayon and Richard Cazenave from the ruling right-wing UMP, François Bayrou, president of the center-right UDF) have pushed amendments aimed at ensuring interoperability of DRM systems. These amendments were adopted by the Assembly at the very end of its reading of the law, on the night of March 16 to March 17. The Union for a Popular Movement (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire), initially named the Union for the Presidential Majority (Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle), and more usually known from its French acronym as simply the UMP, is the main French conservative political party of the right-wing. ... -1... The Union for French Democracy, also known by its French acronym UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française), is a French centrist political party. ...

These amendments state that:

• Providers of DRM systems should provide the necessary technical documentation to any party needing it to ensure that interoperability. In practise, this would mean that makers of software or hardware players could request information from providers of DRM-protected music or video in order for that music or video to be playable on their systems.
• The publication of the source code or technical documentation of systems implementing DRMs is not prohibited by the protection granted to DRMs.

It is unclear, though, whether these clauses would apply to DRM providers that would not choose to avail themselves of the specific legal protection that the law grants to DRMs. That is, it is unknown at this point whether a licence agreement clause claiming that no part of a system, format or protocol is deemed to implement a DRM could exempt DRM providers from having to provide interoperability information. Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ...

These clauses proved controversial, mostly in the US press, where analyses provided by various interest groups claimed that they were directed at Apple's iTunes platform and their iPod players; some news sources even went as far as to nickname the DADVSI law the "French iTunes law". Some analysts claimed that they could force Apple to shut down iTunes for French customers, because Apple's business model ties iTunes content to the iPod player using the DRM system. Finally, Apple claimed that the French copyright law amounted to "state-sponsored piracy" [9]. This declaration supported the claims by free-software advocates and politicians who said that the protection of DRM initially envisioned would benefit makers of DRM systems by enabling them to prosecute competitors as facilitating piracy. Finally, US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez declared that it would look at the law closely and support intellectual property rights, a comment widely interpreted to be supportive of Apple. [10] iTunes is a proprietary digital media player application, launched by Apple Computer on January 9, 2001 at MacWorld Expo San Francisco 2001[1], for playing and organizing digital music and video files. ... A white 5th Generation iPod (iPod with video) with a case and earbuds. ... The office of the U.S. Secretary of Commerce in the mid-20th century. ... Carlos M. Gutierrez (originally Gutiérrez) (born November 4, 1953) is the 35th U.S. Secretary of Commerce, succeeding Donald Evans. ...

The reaction from Apple and the US government was highly controversial in France. The Odebi league, a citizen's action group defending the rights of Internet users, told Apple to "mind its business and not meddle into the French legislative process" and pointed out that "if Apple wishes to do business in France, it has to respect the rights that the French enjoy" [11] [12]; the league also issued a communiqué titled Guterriez go home. Deputy Christian Paul published a communiqué meant to explain the intents of French lawmakers to Americans, without the media filtering. Christian Paul also deplored that the French government took so much pain to please Apple:

When Apple coughs, we now know that Paris sneeze [...] Apple has assured itself control over channels of distribution and sales by imposing a proprietary format. [13]

Representatives from Apple were heard by the Senate Commission for Cultural affairs. The Commission subsequently recommended that the interoperability provisions should be substantially reworked, and proposed amendments, most of which were adopted by the Senate. A notable exception is that the Senate rejected (by 11 votes against 10) an amendment from the Commission which suppressed the right to work around DRMs for reasons of interoperability. The text from the Senate introduces an administrative authority capable of adjudicating the possibility of reading DRM contents in order to achieve interoperability.

Article 7 bis A introduces a loophole for designers of technical measures of protection who do not desire to share them for interoperability. It states that the mission of this administrative authority is to prevent lack of interoperability and other limitations when these are not desired by the copyright holder. It thus seems possible that designers of technical measures can work around the interoperability requirement by showing that lack of interoperability was desired by the copyright holders.

The "Vivendi Universal" amendments

Some amendments, adopted by both houses of Parliament, introduce civil and criminal responsibility for authors of software used for illicit copying of protected works. These amendments are widely known as the "Vivendi Universal" or "VU" amendments; that terminology was used by some members of Parliament, the reason for it being that, allegedly, these amendments were strongly pushed by Vivendi Universal, a major entertainment corporation. According to the Odebi League and EUCD.info, these amendments were unofficially supported by president of the ruling UMP party and presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy. They ended up making up articles 12 bis and 14 quater of the text adopted by the Senate. Vivendi Universal (VU) is a French conglomerate active in media and communications with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications and the Internet. ... Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (born 28 January 1955, in Paris, 17th arrondissement), simply known as Nicolas Sarkozy ( — ), is a French politician born of a Hungarian father and French mother, often nicknamed Sarko. ...

Article 12 bis introduces criminal penalties (up to 3 years in prison and/or a fine of up to 300,000€) for people who knowingly make available software "manifestly" meant to transmit copyrighted works illegally, or who knowingly incite to the use of such software. A number of commentators doubt the constitutionality of this article, because of the uncertainty introduced by the word "manifestly" for defining an incrimination; they also contend that this article amounts to making authors of software criminally responsible for the actions of others (users) that they do not control.

Article 14 quater makes it possible for right holders to obtain court injunctions ordering makers of software mainly used for illegal transmissions of copyrighted works to implement whatever technical measures that can prevent this usage, as long as they do not change the nature of the software. A register of copyrighted works is made available in order to help in the effective implementation of those measures. This article could make it mandatory to implement technologies such as SNOCAP into peer-to-peer transmission programs. SNOCAP is a company founded to provide end-to-end provider of digital licensing and copyright management services for the digital music. ...

A related amendment, making up article 14 ter A, mandates that Internet users should "secure" their Internet connection so that it is not used for transmitting copyrighted works illegally; Internet service providers are supposed to provide users with the suitable technology. This measure may be targetted at peer-to-peer users claiming that their WiFi connection was hijacked, but it may also result in forcing all users to install anti-virus and filtering software on their machines. Wi-Fi (or Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wifi), short for Wireless Fidelity, is a set of standards for wireless local area networks (WLAN) currently based on the IEEE 802. ...

Copyright exceptions

Droit d'auteur, or copyright, is an exclusive right of the author. However, there exist in French law a number of legal exceptions to this exclusive right, somewhat similar as the US notion of fair use. These are listed in CPI L122-5, and article 1/1 bis of the DADVSI law alters these exceptions. Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. ...

The law first expands the exceptions:

• It introduces an exception for education, starting from January 1, 2009: it allows the representation or the reproduction of short works or extracts of works not meant for educational use if the following conditions are meant:
  • these are used solely for purposes of illustration of analysis within education and research, excluding all recreative activity
  • the public is strictly restricted to a majority of pupils, students, teaching and research staff directly concerned
  • no commercial use is made
  • a negotiated remuneration compensates these uses for copyright holders.
• It explicitly allows for transitory and technical reproductions, e.g. web caches.
• It allows specialized facilities for the handicapped to freely reproduce and represent works, e.g. by making audio recordings, Braille versions. The electronic files used for such works may be deposited at an administration for safekeeping.
• It allows public libraries, museums and archives to freely reproduce works for purposes of conservation or preservation of onsite consultation.
• It allows the information press to freely show a reproduction of a work of art (sculpture, painting, architecture...)
  • for purposes of immediate information,
  • if the work of art is directly in relation with the information
  • provided that the author is clearly identified
  • excluding works that themselves aim at reporting information (so a newspaper cannot claim to be able to copy freely press photographs)
  • within reasonable bounds (number of illustration, format).

However, article 1/1 bis also introduces the Berne three-step test directly into French law: Look up cache in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... PREMIER - first The information about the historic site of Safdarjung’s tomb in Delhi, India. ... The Berne three-step test is a set of constraints on the limitations and exceptions to exclusive rights under national copyright laws. ...

The exceptions enumerated within this article cannot hamper the normal exploitation of the work, neither can they cause an undue loss to the legitimate interests of the author.

This clause is highly controversial. Members of the opposition such as Patrick Bloche have argued that the Berne three-step test may be imposed onto states, so that their legislation conforms to the test, but not onto individual citizens. They argue that the vagueness of this test makes it impossible for citizens to know what is allowed and what is disallowed, whereas counterfeiting of copyright works may be a felony offense, and thus that the law is unconstitutional because it is unintelligible. (In December 2005, the Constitutional Council of France declared clauses in a tax bill to be unconstitutional because they were unintelligible [14].) A republican guard giving directions to visitors at the front entrance of the Constitutional Council The Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel) was established by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic on 4 October 1958. ...

Other contents of the law

The main focus of the law is DRMs and repression of peer-to-peer usage, but some other issues related to copyright were also included:

• Title II of the law clarifies the copyright regime over works of employees of the State or local governments;
• Title III toughens regulations over societies collecting money on behalf of copyright holders, and creates some tax credit for record companies;
• Title IV changes procedures for the "legal deposit" of works;
• Title V changes certain rules pertaining to the resale of works of art and remuneration of the artist.

Notable individuals and groups

Nicolas Sarkozy, president of UMP (right-wing)

François Bayrou, president of UDF (centrist)

Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin

Deputy Martine Billard (Greens, Paris)

Patrick Bloche, French Socialist Party (left)

Notable characters in the political debate included: Image File history File links NicolasSarkozy. ... Image File history File links NicolasSarkozy. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2720x2333, 970 KB) Description François BAYROU Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): François Bayrou DADVSI ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2720x2333, 970 KB) Description François BAYROU Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): François Bayrou DADVSI ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1556x1752, 1362 KB) Copyright © 2006 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: DADVSI Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1556x1752, 1362 KB) Copyright © 2006 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: DADVSI Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Députée Martine Billard attending the protest of the 7th of May 2006 against the DADVSI law project. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (472x700, 83 KB) Patrick Bloche lors du Banquet Républicain du Nouveau Parti Socialiste le 21/04/2005. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (472x700, 83 KB) Patrick Bloche lors du Banquet Républicain du Nouveau Parti Socialiste le 21/04/2005. ...

• Minister of culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. He presented the initial draft of the text, as well as numerous amendments, on behalf of the gouvernement. Donnedieu de Vabres' personal character became an issue with some critics of the law, who underlined the incongruity of having a politician convicted of money laundering give lessons of morality and enact criminal penalties against Internet users.
• Deputies (members of the French National Assembly):
  • UMP (right-wing; absolute majority - voted for the text on March 21, 2006 and on June 30, 2006)
    • Christian Vanneste. He was, on behalf of the Commission of Laws, responsible for drafting the report on the proposed law. He represented the Commission in the debates.
    • Christine Boutin. She opposed several clauses of the text, including the criminalisation of Internet users and measures perceived to be harmful to free software, and supported the "global license".
    • Bernard Carayon. He famously remarked on TV that legislators were put under tremendous strain by powerful lobbies, up to the point of outright blackmail such as threatening to withdraw support for art in the deputy's constituency.
    • Alain Suguenot
    • Richard Cazenave
  • UDF (centre-right - opposed or abstained on June 30, 2006)
    • François Bayrou. President of the UDF party, he famously stood against the creation of a "police of the Internet", against measures decried as harmful to free software, and in favour of the right to make private copies. The press commented that this was a way for Bayrou and the UDF to distance itself from the ruling UMP party, despite not formally being in the opposition.
    • Jean Dionis du Séjour and Christophe Baguet were the reporters for the UDF party on the proposed law; they had a somewhat different perspective than Bayrou's.
  • PS (centre-left / left - opposed on the March 21, 2006 and June 30, 2006 votes)
    • Christian Paul
    • Patrick Bloche
    • Didier Mathus
  • Greens (left - opposed on the March 21, 2006 and June 30, 2006 votes)
    • Martine Billard
  • PCF (left - opposed on the March 21, 2006 and June 30, 2006 votes)
    • Frédéric Dutoit
• Other personalities
  • Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin (UMP): declared the law to be urgent, convene the mixed commission, and proposed the bill for a final vote.
  • President of the UMP party Nicolas Sarkozy — following from the disagreements inside his own party, organized a "round table" so as to decide on a common position for his party. Some groups, including EUCD.info and the Odebi League, contend that he has effectively pushed in favour of the law and the so-called "Vivendi Universal" amendments.

Pressure groups: Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres is Frances Minister of Culture since 2003. ... Money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions in order to conceal the identity, source and destination of the money in question. ... The Union for a Popular Movement, initially named the Union for a Presidential Majority, and in both cases also known by its French acronym UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire and Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle, respectively) is a French right-wing, conservative political party. ... Christine Boutin (born in Levroux, Indre, France on February 6, 1944) is a French politician. ... Lobbying is the professional practice of public affairs advocacy, with the goal of influencing a governing body by promoting a point of view. ... Blackmail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... The Union for French Democracy, also known by its French acronym UDF (Union pour la Démocratie Française), is a French centrist political party. ... -1... The emblem of the French Socialist Party The Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS), founded in 1969, is the main opposition party in France. ... Les Verts (the Greens) is a Green Party in France. ... Députée Martine Billard attending the protest of the 7th of May 2006 against the DADVSI law project. ... The French Communist Party (French: Parti communiste français or PCF) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. ... The Prime Minister of France (Premier ministre de la France) is the functional head of the Cabinet of France. ... Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin (born 14 November 1953 in Rabat, Morocco) simply known as Dominique de Villepin ( — , is a French diplomat and politician. ... Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (born 28 January 1955, in Paris, 17th arrondissement), simply known as Nicolas Sarkozy ( — ), is a French politician born of a Hungarian father and French mother, often nicknamed Sarko. ...

• Software:
  • Free software
    • EUCD.info
    • Free Software Foundation France
    • AFUL and APRIL
  • Proprietary software and DRMs
    • BSA
• Authors' and artists' societies
  • Opposed to the "global license" and supporting DRMs.
    • Sacem
    • SACD
  • In favour of the "global license".
    • ADAMI
    • SPEDIDAM
• Consumers and Internet users
  • Audionautes
  • UFC Que Choisir
  • Ligue Odebi
• Entertainment industry
  • Vivendi Universal

The European Union (EU) Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, commonly known as the EU Copyright Directive or short EUCD, is the EUs implementation... The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is a trade group representing a number of the worlds largest software makers. ... The Sacem, or la Sacem, is a French professional association collecting payments of artists’ rights and distribute the rights to the original authors, composers and publishers. ... Vivendi Universal (VU) is a French conglomerate active in media and communications with activities in music, television and film, publishing, telecommunications and the Internet. ...

References

1. ^ On March 14, 2006, on behalf of the National Assembly law commission, deputy Christian Vanneste (UMP), took out the only amendment which would have permitted to copy at least once, for private usage, work which had been legally acquired (CD, videogram, etc.) This withdrawal of the amendment was presented to be in accordance with a recent court decision from the Cour de cassation stating that copying DVDs for private use is not an automatic right; this decision cited the not-yet-transposed directive and the "test in three steps" from the WIPO treaties. A "college of mediators", composed in part of judges, will examine each issue on a case-to-case basis. See (French) "Les députés restreignent la copie privée", Le Monde, March 16, 2006.
2. ^ (French)"Le projet de loi sur le droit d'auteur a été adopté par l'Assemblée nationale", Le Monde, March 21, 2006.

• (French) Final text of the act as voted by Parliament on June 30, 2006
• (French) Official site of the law project on the French National Assembly's web site, containing:
  • Original text of the projected law, as proposed by the government
  • Proposed amendments
  • Text approved by the National Assembly
  • Announcement of the convocation of the mixed commission
  • Transcripts of the debates: analytical (summarized) and full
• (French) Official site of the law project on the French Senate's web site
  • Text sent to the Senate
  • Works of the Commission of Cultural Affairs
  • Report in the name of the Commission of Cultural Affairs by Senator Michel Thiollière
  • Proposed amendments
  • Announcement of the convocation of the mixed commission
• 2005 Report on Internet "piracy" and filtering solutions by A. Brugidou and Gilles Kahn
• (English) Communiqué by deputy Christian Paul, on interoperability and the Apple controversy
• SACD's Web Site (Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques)

March 14 is the 73rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (74th in leap years) with 292 days remaining in the year. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Court of Cassation (Cour de cassation in French) is the main court of last resort in France. ...

Analyses

Wikinews has news related to:

DADVSI

• An analysis of the DADVSI legislative process on the blog of Jean-Baptiste Soufron
• A draft law in France unnerves software firms, Thomas Crampton, International Herald Tribune, April 27, 2006
• Minister in France defends ipod law , , Thomas Crampton, International Herald Tribune, April 30, 2006
• Wikinews, French Parliament adopts controversial copyright bill

Image File history File links Wikinews-logo. ... Wikinews is a free-content news source and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. ... The International Herald Tribune (www. ...

See also

• Copyright

Copyright laws of the European Union (EU)
Austria • Belgium • Cyprus • Czech Republic • Denmark • Estonia • Finland • France • Germany • Greece • Hungary • Ireland • Italy • Latvia • Lithuania • Luxembourg • Malta • Netherlands • Poland • Portugal • Slovakia • Slovenia • Spain • Sweden • United Kingdom See also: EU Copyright Directive • DADVSI edit