PARIS — Record labels and movie studios are counting on the courts to help wage their war against global online piracy. But in France, some courts are refusing to go along.
Judicial activism is roiling the entertainment industry here, as judges release convicted fileswappers with suspended sentences associated with otherwise draconian penalties stipulated by copyright law.
Now, in a widening rift, the powerful president of the French magistrates union has begun to openly advocate decriminalizing online trading in copyrighted works for personal use.
“We are in the process of creating a cultural rupture between a younger generation that uses the technologies that companies and societies have made available, such as the iPod, file download software, peer-to-peer networks, etc.,” Judge Dominique Barella told Wired News. “It’s like condemning people for driving too fast after selling them cars that go 250 kmh.”
Barella first began his crusade after writing an article in the French daily Libération in March following rulings by French judges who suspended jail time and fines for alleged perpetrators who were caught downloading music for their personal use. The leniency of the French judges illustrates what Barella describes as confusion over the definition of the intellectual property protection law. Instead, a more appropriate policy needs to be adopted in France and in Europe that protects what he says are mostly young people of the MP3 generation who are weak targets against the machinations of the entertainment industry’s legal agenda.
The industry is not taking Barella’s statements lightly. In a letter last month addressed to the French Minister of Justice Dominique Perben, more than 20 representatives of France’s entertainment, music and film association bodies and advocacy groups expressed their outrage.
“We are surprised and shocked that the president of the magistrates union, given the level of influence he has on his (judicial) colleagues, can publish in the press a call to not criminally sanction criminal acts, which contradicts the intentions of government bodies,” the letter read.
The letter also thanked the minister in advance for “taking actions that he deems appropriate.”
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