Sarkozy: “A decisive moment for the future of a civilised internet”

France unveils anti-piracy plan

French web users caught pirating movies or music could soon be thrown offline.

Those illegally sharing files will face the loss of their net access thanks to a newly-created anti-piracy body granted the wide-ranging powers.

The anti-piracy body comes out of a deal agreed by France’s music and movie makers and its net firms.

The French government is bend to introduce harsh new regulation to prevent illegal file sharing over the Internet. This wouldn’t have surprised me 5 years ago where the benefits of openness and sharing had not been reckonized as benificial in new business models for digital content. (In fact, it does not surprise me that a French government is introducing such measures today. The French are always ages behind when it comes to legislative reforms) But today, every sane person – that is with the exception of those with vested economic interests in maintaining status such as IFPI representatives and their lackey lawyers) understands that criminalizing a whole generation of young consumers of digital users is definitely not the way forward. New business models is the way forward, and there are plenty of ways to make tons of money in a world where file sharing is not closed to be considered as even more harmful as physically harming other people.

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digitalrights, filesharing