The French government is moving ahead with plans for a controversial law that would legalize file-sharing of music and films, a move that could undo years of antipiracy work by the entertainment industry.
France’s Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres is set to be questioned about the draft on Wednesday by the parliamentary commission for cultural affairs and the commission for economic affairs.
The project has worried the music, film and television industries because it would make France the first country to allow unlimited peer-to-peer downloading for a flat fee of several euros a month.
File-sharing lets consumers swap songs and movies without paying for them. Some legalized versions of peer-to-peer networks are starting to crop up, including one expected to be launched soon in Germany by Warner Bros.
"We are concerned and monitoring the situation closely," Francine Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry music trade group said on Friday. "But it has a long way to go before it becomes law."
The draft law, which originally aimed to tackle online piracy, is backed by consumer groups in France but heavily opposed by such companies as Vivendi Universal, which owns Universal Music, the world’s biggest record company, and a stake in film and TV company NBC Universal.
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