correcting-france-mistake.html (5799B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays cultural drm" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>Correcting My Mistake about French Law - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 7 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/correcting-france-mistake.translist" --> 8 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 9 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> 10 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 11 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 12 <div class="article reduced-width"> 13 <h2>Correcting My Mistake about French Law</h2> 14 15 <address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard 16 Stallman</a></address> 17 18 <p>For several years I've said in my speeches that it was a crime in 19 France, punishable by imprisonment, to have a copy of the free 20 software that can decrypt the video on a DVD. That encryption is an 21 example of DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), the malicious 22 features <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/">designed to restrict 23 users</a>.</p> 24 25 <p>That is what Sarkozy's DADVSI law said when it was adopted, but I 26 recently learned that the Conseil d'Etat introduced some 27 exceptions. In fact, free software to decrypt and play DVDs is 28 legally distributed in France—unlike the US, where it was censored 29 by the infamous 1998 law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.</p> 30 31 <p>However, it's not clear whether this will apply to other DRM schemes. 32 There is a danger that the complex conditions will specifically 33 prohibit free software for playing Bluray disks and allow only 34 proprietary software. Thus, it is not a crime in France to possess 35 the free software that can play a DVD, but it is yet to be decided 36 whether it is a crime to possess a free program to play a Bluray disk.</p> 37 38 <p>It is certainly not <em>wrong</em> to have a copy of such a program. 39 The software that's wrong is nonfree software; the only ethical 40 program to play a video, or do anything else, is a free program. The 41 wrong here is in the law itself. However, as long as it exists, if 42 you are a dissident in France you should keep such programs hidden.</p> 43 44 <p>When I first got a drive that handles DVDs, the reason I decided not 45 to install free DVD-playing software was because of this French law. 46 I go to France from time to time, and I was concerned there might be 47 some who would wish to have me imprisoned for this so as to terrorize 48 other netizens. I refuse to have any nonfree software, and the only 49 option that left me was to have no software for this job. Thus, I 50 could not play encrypted DVDs at all.</p> 51 52 <p>Knowing now that I won't be imprisoned for bringing libdvdcss into 53 France, I could consider having a copy, which would give me the option 54 of playing DVDs that have DRM.</p> 55 56 <p>However, I think I won't do it. I have got used to avoiding encrypted 57 DVDs, and this has the bonus of giving Hollywood no money with which to 58 lobby for nasty laws like SOPA. Why change?</p> 59 </div> 60 61 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 62 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 63 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 64 <div class="unprintable"> 65 66 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 67 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 68 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 69 the FSF. 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For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 97 document was modified, or published. 98 99 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 100 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 101 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 102 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 103 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 104 105 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 106 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 107 108 <p>Copyright © 2012, 2021 Richard Stallman.</p> 109 110 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 111 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 112 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 113 114 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 115 116 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 117 <!-- timestamp start --> 118 $Date: 2021/09/02 08:55:39 $ 119 <!-- timestamp end --> 120 </p> 121 </div> 122 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 123 </body> 124 </html>