01/03/2006

The proposed new law dealing with author’s rights, the study for which was suspended December 22 following a surprise vote by deputies legalising the no-limits downloading on the Internet in exchange for a concessionary remuneration for authors, is back in the foreground. Ever since the suspension, the global licence has filled the media pages, since French cinema professionals consider it to be a very serious threat to film finance.

In the centre of the storm, the Minister of Culture, Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres had to examine it again. The result: the new version of the law will be examined from March 7 in the National Assembly and voted on March 14, reaffirming the right to make private copies , an exception to author’s rights added to the law in 1985, in exchange for a tax on the means of copying (CD, DVD, MP3...). While a mediation commission will define the number of authorised copies per means (internet downloading included), French cinema professionals believe that controlling it will be very difficult.

The law will also toughen sanctions against piracy. Having abandoned the idea of a graduated riposte (postal warning, blocking of broadband connection, then prison), the Minister proposes to install a system of fines which could start at €38 euros for the occasional surfer downloading ‘peer-to-peer’ and would rise to €100,000 and one year in prison for those creating the means for allowing access to protected works. Ahead of the detailed discussions next Tuesday, the deputies met last night with filmmakers and producers, including Costa Gavras, Bertrand Tavernier, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Radu Mihaileanu and Christophe Barratier, for a final discussion.

(Translated from French)