As a continuation of the "saga" of the French draft law on copyright and related rights of the information society (DASDVSI), the French Senate voted this month the law which continues to be severely criticised by the consumer associations as well as software companies.

The Senators have adopted the law with 164 votes for and 128 against. The "for" votes came from UMP (Union pour un Mouvement Populaire) and from the radical part of RDSE (Rassemblement Democratique et Social Europeen). The PS (French Socialist Party), the Verts (Greens) and the PCF (French Communist Party) voted against it.

The law supported by the Senate has also changed the article 7, that was adopted by the Deputies and required the DRM vendors and commercial platforms to open their technology to competitors in order to make it interoperable. This brought forth the reaction of companies such as Apple or Microsoft and of the American Minister of Commerce. The senators, guided by the rapporteur Michel Thiollière and by Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Minister of Culture, adopted a totally different system based on the creation of an independent administrative authority.

The current text no longer guaranties the right to the private copy, which is considered as a serious blow to the consumers. The CLCV (Association Consommation, logement et cadre de vie) states a "conditioned private copy" takes away from the consumer the right to privately use a work that was acquired legally. The association considers the consumer should no longer pay for the possibility to copy, which is actually refused.

Another measure considered as unrealistic is the one that holds software companies liable when their software is used for piracy. This measure also affects companies relying on open- source software.

"It is the nature of open source that there is nothing we can do about a program once it is distributed," said Gilles Gravier, chief technology strategist for security at Sun Microsystems. "Also the open-source licenses are issued on a global basis.

Finally, this law draft has succeeded in raising more criticism after having been voted by the Senate than after it was passed by the National Assembly in March 2006.

The DADVSI law will be debated further on in a Mixed Joint Commission including seven deputies and seven senators, which has the task to reconcile the disagreements between the texts adopted by the two Assemblies. According to certain sources, this Commission would be gathered on 30 May.

French iPod bill moves forward (11.05.2006)
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/11/business/apple.php

The draft law on copyright raises vivid critics (only in French, 12.05.2006)
http://www.01net.com/editorial/315533/legislation/le-projet-de-loi-sur...

The Senate cancels the forced interoperability (only in French, 10.05.2006)
http://www.ratiatum.com/news3108_Le_Senat_supprime_l_interoperabilite_...

EDRI-gram : Update on French EUCD Transposition ( 29.03.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.6/frencheucd

What's so special about French EUCD transposition? (15.03.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.5/franceeucd