Nothing in the national law and international obligations prevents states from permitting file-sharing as long as they subject it to a levy. This is the conclusion of a legal feasibility study under the supervision of Prof. André Lucas, the most renowned copyright scholar in France.

The study on the feasibility of compensation for peer-to-peer file-sharing, first released in French in June 2005, has been translated into English for wider accessibility. The translation has been conducted at the initiative of the German advocacy group privatkopie.net with the support of BEUC, the European Consumers's Organisation, and Stiftung Bridge.

The analysis concludes that downloading is covered by the private copying exception, provided that the existing system of remuneration is adapted. Internet service providers would have to pay a levy, just as the manufacturers and importers of blank media do today. For uploading, the authors envisage subjecting the so called making available right to mandatory collective management. In short, "compulsory collective management is not perceived as reversing the fundamental principles of copyright, but instead 'reinforcing and (..) organising the protection granted to authors against infringements of their fundamental rights, as consecrated in French law since 1793".

L'Alliance Public-Artistes has supported its arguments for a Global Licence by additional studies on the technical and economic feasibility. The latter find that a levy of 5 Euros per month is economically justified. These studies have thoroughly invalidated arguments that a flat rate compensation for legal file-sharing is not compatible with national, European and international copyright law and that it threatens the emerging online market. Such arguments were brought forth, among others, by the German Ministry of Justice.

With reference to the Lucas study, Members of French Parliament from both the conservative ruling party as well as from the socialist party have advanced amendments to the recent copyright law reform in France with the aim of introducing a Global Licence. The National Assembly passed these amendments on 22 December 2005.

The Global Licence was a reality in the proposals for a short period of time. The rights industry only managed to get it rolled back by an unprecedented campaign that Liberation called "total war on the Global Licence". When the administration brought the draft copyright law up for vote in the French National Assembly in January again, the provision on the Global Licence was gone.

Privatkopie.net considers that collective rights management is ideally suited for the individual mass medium Internet. It is legally, technically and economically feasible. Privatkopie.net also expresses its hope in increasing the rationality of the international copyright debate by releasing an English translation of the Lucas study.

Peer-to-peer File Sharing and Literary and Artistic Property - A Feasibility Study regarding a system of compensation for the exchange of works via the Internet English Version (03.2006)
http://privatkopie.net/files/Feasibility-Study-p2p-acs_Nantes.pdf French Version (05.2005)
http://alliance.bugiweb.com/usr/Documents/RapportUniversiteNantes-juin...

Study Shows : Content Flatrate is Feasible! (28.05.2006)
http://privatkopie.net/files/PM-060528.html

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

(Contribution by Volker Grassmuck , privatkopie.net)