As usual we should not take this as 100% fact but it indicates a softening of the current attitude to copyright infringement penalties.
http://www.slyck.com/story1438.htmlThe French government is currently mulling over changes to their copyright laws. Currently, downloading copyrighted material online is punishable by 3 years in prison and a €300,000 fine. Now it appears that the Justice Minister is recommending that the punishment must be in proportion to the offense.
The suggested changes would apply to those who make, distribute and promote their file-sharing software which has the purpose of downloading copyrighted works. The suggested law recommends that these individuals should face the full punishment of 3 years in jail and a €300,000 fine. It was also clear that there is a difference between making software and promoting it to infringe copyright and making software intended for publication purposes or exchanging data files. While there is no evidence to suggest what defines software as clearly intended to infringe on copyrights, or simply to exchange data, it appears likely that it would be left for the courts to decide.
This of course sounds like the French version of Grokster in respect of the upper part of the proposed legislative change, the suggested penalties for downloader are of course likely to be more realistic than those curently on offer, although after reading this article its clear that the max penalty dished out has never exceeded 3000 euros in any of the cases brought and those are rather few and far between.
