French music copyright group sues Azureus, Morpheus, and Shareaza

SPPF sues several US-based file-sharing program developers over the fact that their software can be used to distribute copyrighted content illegally.

The Society of Phonogram Producers in France (the Société des Producteurs de Phonogrammes for you Francophones) has filed a lawsuit against the developers of Azureus, Shareaza, and Morpheus for their failure to prevent the illegal downloading of copyrighted material.

Under the so-called “Vivendi amendment,” named so for the entertainment conglomerate being its chief sponsor, to the DADVSI law passed by the French Parliament late last year, developers who publish software that is “manifestly designed for illicit use” can be punished by up to 3 years in prison and a 300, 000 euros ($400,000 USD) in fines.

The SPPF apparently hopes to have the trial in France and are asking for some 20.3 million euros ($27 million USD) in financial damages and interest.

The case is probably the first in what are too be many troubling cases under this new French law against those whom develop file-sharing programs. What’s particularly troubling is that it makes the developer responsible for the actions of the end user.

Azureus and BitTorrent Inc. both offer legitimate content with their BitTorrent clients yet, they can both just as easily be used to download copyrighted content illegally as well. Going after these sort of companies who are trying to offer paid, downloadable content as an alternative to free illegal material are really doing their industry a disservice. P2P and file-sharing software developers will simply go underground and not offer their programs as part of a mainstream effort. They will therefore no longer even consider augmenting their platforms with legal content and depriving the SPPF and others of revenue they seem to be so desperately concerned with.

Suing Shareaza and Morpheus does little to stem the tide of eMule mods and KaZaA clones for which the demand will always be present.

Guess the French music industry is just as insane as ours here in America.

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