Topic: French Government Lobbied to Ban Free Software
radiorahim
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2777
posted 02 December 2005 07:53 PM
This from the French "Free Software Foundation".
quote: Friday November 18th, 2005, French Department of Culture. SNEP and SCPP have told Free Software authors: "You will be required to change your licenses." SACEM add: "You shall stop publishing free software," and warn they are ready "to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code" should the "VU/SACEM/BSA/FA Contents Department"[1] bill proposal pass in the Parliament.
It appears that publishing Free Software giving access to culture is about to become a counterfeiting criminal offence. Will SACEM sue France Télécom R&D research labs for having published Maay and Solipsis (P2P pieces of software used to exchange data)
Not sure of all the background...perhaps something is lost in the translation but it appears that there's currently a bill before the French Parliament that would forbid the distribution of free software that allows one to access cultural works.