Last week I noted that following the international standard on copyright is complicated, since there are many countries that are moving ahead or already have reforms that better serve the interests of users. Things just got a bit more interesting as a French court has dismissed a lawsuit against an alleged file sharer for both downloading and uploading. Much like the federal court in Canada, the French court relied on the private copying system in reaching its conclusion that the alleged file sharing was not unlawful (arguments raised by a consumer group). While CRIA has argued that Canada is in danger of becoming an "analogue island," it would appear that the island just got a bit more crowded.
French Court Dismisses P2P Case
Tags: CRIA / franceCopyright Microsite - Music IndustryCopyright ColumnsCopyright Microsite - Canadian Copyright / Music Downloading / P2P
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“While CRIA has argued that Canada is in danger of becoming an “analogue island,” it would appear that the island just got a bit more crowded.”
– I somehow sense the “analogue island” will have all the artists. The ‘producers’ of ‘content’ will choose to live in DRM land with the americans.
I guees we’ll see who creates for money and who the actual artists are.
Any “Court Case” is refreshing…
It will be most interesting to watch and see if the RIAA v Nettwork Greubel case makes it up to a Judge, and to see if the USA might make an ‘island’ out of it… similar to Puerto Rico perhaps?
Michael,
There are two things to be separated there. The court did dismiss the lawsuit, and they did rely on the private copying provision to determine downloading is lawful. However the uploading was not judged as private copying. It has not been found lawful per se, but the Court said that the file sharer’s bad faith could not be prejudged, since there is a significant number of public domain works that can be shared.
Michael,
There are two things to be separated there. The court did dismiss the lawsuit, and they did rely on the private copying provision to determine downloading as being lawful (which previous French cases already established). However the uploading was not assimilated to private copying. It has not been found lawful per se. The Court said that there is a significant number of public domain works shared on P2P networks, and thus that you cannot presume the users bad faith when they share works for which copyright is actually reserved.
It’s been a century that French court judged bad faith is presumed in intellectual property cases, so there are few chances the judgement stays as is in superior courts.
But for sure it can be seen as a politically oriented judgement.