French bill casts chill on open-source
April 17, 2006
Bill not yet a law, but developers are already feeling the squeeze
News Analysis by Peter Sayer
APRIL 14, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - On May 4, the French Senate will debate a copyright bill that is widely expected to have a chilling effect on the development and distribution of open-source software for digital rights management (DRM) or P2P (peer-to-peer) file-sharing. That's because the bill's provisions include a penalty of up to three years in prison and a fine of $363,171 for publishing, distributing or promoting software in France that is "manifestly intended" for the unauthorized distribution of copyright works.
The developers of the open-source multimedia player VLC, which can read DRM-protected DVDs, consider themselves targeted.
...
Open-source projects are thought to be more vulnerable than commercial operations because they typically have few resources at their disposal to defend legal actions.
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/
News Analysis by Peter Sayer
APRIL 14, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - On May 4, the French Senate will debate a copyright bill that is widely expected to have a chilling effect on the development and distribution of open-source software for digital rights management (DRM) or P2P (peer-to-peer) file-sharing. That's because the bill's provisions include a penalty of up to three years in prison and a fine of $363,171 for publishing, distributing or promoting software in France that is "manifestly intended" for the unauthorized distribution of copyright works.
The developers of the open-source multimedia player VLC, which can read DRM-protected DVDs, consider themselves targeted.
...
Open-source projects are thought to be more vulnerable than commercial operations because they typically have few resources at their disposal to defend legal actions.
Source: http://www.computerworld.com/