The French government, in a few months, has gone from words to deeds, translating into a bill the now famous agreement dell'Eliseo born from the work of the Commission Olivennes. This is an initiative unprecedented in the European landscape that, however - if other countries follow the French example - is likely to innaugurare a new dark season for the regulation of intellectual property, a season marked by a serious misunderstanding of the fund: the second whose rights related to author sovraordinati are compared to other fundamental human rights and citizens such as privacy and, above all, information in its dual meaning of right to inform and be informed. Beyond the solemn declarations in which the bill

is presented as the product of extensive negotiation between stakeholders and as a balanced outcome, in fact, the legislative initiative is strongly unbalanced by the holders of intellectual property rights . On the other hand, despite the news has been cleverly concealed by the French government - with great peace of the principle of transparency - the Council of State in recent days had expressed an opinion strongly critical on the text of the draft law. The Government, however, went on his way taking little account the concerns of Councillors of State. The initiative and, even more, its implementation will not like me at all. First, I do not think we can define "educational" - how does the report prepared by the French - a law that assumes that whoever violates the rights of copyright by downloading, assumptions, three times, a work of 'ingenuity in danger of being suspended for a year, the internet connection, losing the opportunity to exercise basic political rights and access to information assets now made available online. What would be the lesson? That the copyright has more freedom of information? There is another aspect difficult to share. The French government assumes that it is necessary to further safeguard the copyright holders after they were engaged - with the famous Oliviennes agreement - to expand distribution channels legitimate Observatory Network, to renounce the use measures production techniques not interoperanti and reducing the time interval between the release of a film in cinemas and in distribution channels telematics. In principle no objection. It would, however, been desirable that the bill imposed the holders of rights by them as simply "promised" their representative Oliviennes exactly as required users to refrain from certain conduct, identifying Moreover, heavy penalties if this does not happen. In recent months, with Leonardo Chiariglione and many other connoisseurs Autorevoli Network we wrote to then Minister of Culture Francesco Rutelli that scongiurasse the risk that Italy will follow the French example, now, it gridarlo with even greater strength to follow to that means to deny a long legal tradition of balance and balance between conflicting interests such as those relating to copyright.

Tags: Copyright, example, French, imitate, way

Posted on: August 30, 2008

Filed under: Copyright