French Government Lobbied to Ban Free Software

[Ben Finney]

On 02-Dec-2005, Alex Hudson wrote:
> On Sat, 2005-12-03 at 02:34 +1100, Ben Finney wrote:
> > The "respect the copy prohibition" refers to a *legal*
> > restriction, not a technical one. That is, a device or program
> > that "respects" such a prohibition would be obeying the law (and
> > ignoring the user), rather than being technically restricted by
> > the medium.
> 
> You're right, DRM restrictions are not equivalent to legal
> restrictions.

Not presently. The proposed laws are attempting to make them
equivalent.

> But, in the EU, overriding DRM is already an offence.

Yes, breaching copyright is an offense.

What these laws try to make illegal is the distribution of anything
that *could be used* to breach copyright. Such as free software.

> What I'm asking is how forcing software to respect DRM results in
> less freedom

It's the difference between not being allowed to stab someone in the
neck with a knife, and not being allowed to sell knives.

> my software is already effectively respecting DRM by refusing to
> access it.

Most software *doesn't* do what you say -- and *all* of the software
on a free operating system doesn't.

That's what they want to make illegal. Not the actions of breaching
copyright -- those are already illegal, as you say. What is to become
illegal is the distribution of tools that fail to betray the user's
wishes when media tells them to.

> In other words, I'm asking for an example scenario of something that
> would be legal under the EUCD,

Distributing or making an operating system that includes a 'cp'
command that will copy files as requested by the user.

Distributing or making software that prints whatever the user asks to
print.

Distributing or making software that will play an audio file as often
as the user asks.

> but not legal under this new law,

The new law would require all these items of software to refuse to
perform their function if the bits they operate on contain some
indication that the copyright holder doesn't like that action.

Software that didn't betray the user in such a way would be illegal to
make or distribute.

-- 
 \       "Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."  -- Donald |
  `\                                              Robert Perry Marquis |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney <ben at benfinney.id.au>
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