Thursday, December 22, 2005

French MPs Vote to Legalize Internet File-Sharing

An AFP newswire article, via Yahoo! News, reports that:

In a rare and possibly shortlived victory for millions of French Internet users who download music and movies, France's lower house of parliament has voted to legalise peer-to-peer file-sharing.

The surprise decision -- adopted 30 votes to 28 in a nearly empty chamber late Wednesday -- runs counter to moves in most other Western countries, where legislators are seeking to stamp out copyright violations via the Internet by declaring such downloads illegal.

The measure, introduced as two amendments to a government bill designed to toughen digital copyright protection, would deem that downloading copyrighted files is legal as long as it is for private use only and the downloader pays a general fee for royalty payments.

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