Lucky all the ubuntu ISOs I get from newsgroups come down an encrypted connection...

This is a lost battle.

I have some hope yet for the DRM free thing though, I'll happily buy a legit movie in a linux friendly codec (I use windows but that's not the point, I want the movie to be portable and compatible) for around 10e.

A DVD being 30-40e and having much higher distribution and manufacturing costs, I suppose 10e is fair.

I guess everyone who likes anime and j-drama in france are gonna be fucked then.

In the last week one of my internet connections has uploaded 25GB using bit torrent. All of this has been legal. All of this has been stuff the the authors have positively encouraged me to share, it saves them having to fund the bandwidth to distribute their software.

As far as I know, in my case none of this was encrypted.

Had this data been encrypted how would anyone have any idea whether the data I've been happily sharing was legal or pirated.

I'm personally of the opinion that if people want to listen to music, they should pay the artists.

But I don't see why the Music / Movie should be allowed to strangle a chunk of my business any more than I see why I should be allowed to steal from them.

How do these proposed laws plan to differentiate between different types of internet usage?

Lets face it, most folk are happy enough with a 4meg or so connection if they're just browsing and DLing the odd song/watching youtube.

If there is a scheme put in place where ISPs are forced to divulge heavy users, and stop them from doing so, who the hell will want to pay for a 20+meg line??? It's like supercar drivers - their cars are fabulously out specc'd for what they are legally allowed to do on the roads, and cost the earth, hence their rarity.

Unless the hope is to free enough bandwidth for the whole country to be able to stream HD content.... lmao!

Hopefully improvements in the stealthy aspects of DL/P2P will improve sufficiently to evade such measures.

...between "heavy P2P users" who are downloading illegal content and those who are downloading free-to-copy content (such as Linux live-DVDs and public-domain or creative-commons media)?

Of course Western governments' corporate sponsors couldn't care less if legit uses of tech are trashed in the name of their right to rort the public.

"The plan has been drawn up by French retail exec Denis Olivennes. It will see signatory ISPs - including France Telecom, which owns Orange in the UK - hand over information on heavy users of file-sharing networks to a new enforcement body which will formally warn them to stop. If they persist, their connection will be cut."

And will it be up to the file-sharers to prove they haven't been sharing copyrighted material or the the authorities to prove they have been? Also, how does this figure into data-protection laws? I would imagine it's quite at odds with it but IANAL.

From a country where you have to prove your innocence if accused.

If there is no file sharing, then people will need those 10, or 20 Meg lines. In fact we'd all just go back to 512K/1M. I can really see the ISP's welcoming the loss of business! After all the Police have nothing else to do now, having ridden the country of all crime now...sigh

Then the pirate P2Pers will simply make more use of encryption as is already on the increase...Sooo...the new laws will be completely useless as they can't be enforced...

I live in Paris and over the last few years I have bought maybe 10 or so DVDs from FNAC. Mostly children’s titles for my son, like “Shrek”, “Ice Age”, “Monsters Inc” and “Harry Potter”

These DVDs have all had had multiple languages, including English, for the sound track and subtitles.

“Dora the Explorer” even had an Irish sound track!

I have bought other DVDs like “Les Enfants du Paradis” and “Taxi” which were French only, but I think they were either old films or meant for the local market, so I guess there was no need or demand to translate them.

On the other hand, I bought the DVDs for “Only Fools and Horses” and “The IT Crowd” from Amazon UK and the language and subtitles were English only.

Do you have an example of an internationally released DVD that has been released in France with French language only soundtrack and subtitles?

And if so, was this a decision made by the studio concerned or the French government?

I seem to dimly remeber something about strong encryption already being illegal in France, however...

The french have this quaint habbit of deciding they need to make a law on somethng (after lots of shouting and a few riots/strikes) then everyone forgets about it and people go on exactly as they did before.

I sometimes wish the same happened in good old blighty.

Actually, it's very easy to see what you're uploading.

At least I know it is with Gnutella. When we were kids my younger brother installed Kazaa or something. Within a month we got a warning from our ISP (Comcast) to stop all illegal uploads, and the letter included a list of some of the movies that had been uploaded.

They ~do~ know what they're doing, and if it goes to court, your computer is ~full~ of evidence of what ~your~ doing.

Now, nobody here is talking about banning encrypted traffic, banning legal P2P or any of that. It was very, very specific.

I don't do anything wrong, but if they'll be handing over personal details without a warrent I'll be doing everything encrypted. If they slow anything I do down at all? I'll sue.

Oh, and they're not a common carrier anymore so they are liable for delivery of content. Virus? Sue!

Still, I always encrypt mine, whether the content is legitimate or not, so it's hard to see how they'll know what I'm downloading.

Perhaps the next stage is to open my post to see if I'm receiving data discs, which of course will have any dodgy material encrypted in a Truecrypt hidden volume anyhow.

"What's the encryption key?"

"There isn't any encrypted data on there."

"We think there is."

"Prove it."

...just like the '68 neo-communist Clinton did with the infamous DMCA in the USA which was mirrored worldwide by similar laws.

All this anti-customers campaign worldwide is just insane, along with the DRM stuff.

90% of copies online are spread by the producers themselves or against a competitor, because with no copies available they know that they couldn't sell much hardware and given the high prices for originals the number of units sold wouldn't increase much. This is the only truth. Just like all the fuss about the console modchips coming from China... no modchips available=few consoles sold. It would be just too capitalistic and fair for multinationals managers nowadays to avoid DRM completely and put no locks on customers.

HD-DVD is going to implement Region Lock pretty soon since its specs have been approved, Blu-Ray had it since the beginning. It wasn't stupid enough to put Region Lock on original DVD discs to prevent customers who legally bought an original copy to play it in other countries, the Hollywood unions stuff managed to force adoption of this dumb DRM thing once again against customers.

Hi,

These type of developments are very welcome by me. I have been expecting the persecution of file sharers to lead to development of anonymity technologies for some time now. This story informs me that it is happening and that it is time for me to look up the advances that have been made and see if they if it is time to start enjoying file sharing.

I hope snooping technologies, controlling governments and commercial operators that would like to know what everyone is up to up their game so that those developing countermeasures speed things up. The Internet will become anonymous it is an inevitability.

Art R Big

Sarkozy - an unusual political animal in that, during his campaign, he promised to change state policies that allowed full retirement at 50 or 55 and, oh by the way, he also promised to do something about internet piracy (among many other things).

Now he's actually trying to keep campaign promises! I see your confusion. How could Brits or Americans possibly comprehend a politician who has the temerity to actually try to keep campaign promises?

No, I know the solution's not perfect - it's a proposal. Yes, I know it's probably not what a certain reader of El Reg would've seen as the next highest priority - and, I'm sure if that reader writes to Sarkozy then Sarko will see the error of his ways and immediately change his priorities. And, no again, Sarkozy's tussle with the unions probably won't result in the wishful-thinking union victory.

Still, as the usual moaning, whingeing, pointing-at-it-and-saying-it's-broken stream goes on El Reg comments, this one wasn't bad.

So set yourself up as a business(with the added advantage in that your house/car/stuff cannot be taken in bankrupcy because a business needs them, whereas a normal citizen doesn't.

Have a look at how the local plumbers do it because they generally aren't listed anywhere official as a business, so this should be cheap.

Is the french government so naive as to believe the public wont RETALIATE over this??

"hand over information on heavy users of file-sharing networks to a new enforcement body which will formally warn them to stop. If they persist, their connection will be cut"

So if you use P2P heavily, you are immediately branded as a pirate. Nice. Forget due process, we'll shut you down because your ISP doesn't like your bandwidth usage and wants to use their pipe to add more users.

Another "Criminals use X, therefore if you use X you are a criminal" win.

The French have just got over Sarkozy telling them that if they want money, they should work for it. Now he's telling them that if they want other people's stuff, they should pay them with money.

Mon dieu! Sacré bleu! And other French stereotypical outbursts of that kind.

Widespread riots? discontent?

[excised by Reg moderator]

Don't talk about things you either don't know or don't understand.

You've seen in a rag that there are "riots and strikes" ?

For your information these are led by a *minority* that clings to its century old *privileges*.

Oh and FYI again, the president's popularity is alright.

[excised by Reg moderator]