Anarchy Sunday 2010 (video) Freedom Summit (Freedom Phoenix)
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/cablegate-mpaa-bsa-lobbied-frances-harsh-internet-law-very-important-key-copyright-fight/
Cablegate: MPAA, RIAA, BSA weighed in on France’s Internet disconnection law
Monday 20, 2010
According to a US diplomatic cable given to secrets outlet WikiLeaks, US business interests played a role in the passage of a French law that created Internet user blacklists, ostensibly to be used against people who access copyrighted content online.The "Creation and Internet law," which became law in Sept. 2009, was initially set-back for months by the theatrics of 15 French socialist lawmakers, an April, 2009 US State Department communique details.
Noting the vote was not very well attended as most members assumed it would pass, the socialists hid in a broom closet near the entrance of parliament. Since there were no members near the chamber entrance, that meant the vote was to proceed with them in absentia, but at the last moment they emerged from the closet and charged into parliament to cast a bloc of 'no' votes, effectively killing the bill by a ballot of 21-15.
That lawmakers hid in a closet to stifle the French Internet law went unreported at the time.
After reintroduction, the bill passed in September.
The secret US cable described US business groups from the movies and music industries as keenly interested in the bill's passage.
"Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) President Robert Pisano told the Charge on March 20 that the graduated response law is 'very important' to the fight against online piracy, and to MPAA," the US embassy in Paris noted. "The Recording Industry of America has expressed similar sentiments."
They added that the Business Software Alliance (BSA) lobbied against a key safeguard in the French bill that would help protect Internet users from spyware and other malicious software. The BSA is a collection of the biggest names in tech, from Apple to Cisco, HP, Intel, IBM, Microsoft and numerous others.
The groups objected to a requirement that they provide French authorities with the source code for whatever software they've employed to foil copyright violators. The measure was devised after a 2005 scandal over a rootkit distributed by Sony on audio CDs, that would install software on users' computers that enabled usage monitoring.
French lawmakers had "no appetite" for the BSA's proposal and let their amendment languish in committee.
The law created an Internet regulatory body modeled after the country's financial markets watchdog, empowering the "HADOPI" (a French acronym meaning the "High Authority of Diffusion of the Art Works and Protection of the Rights on the Internet") to create user blacklists and impose penalties on Internet service providers (ISPs) who allow banned users to access data services.
It also created a three-strikes program wherein users could be disconnected from the Internet for up to a year on their third time getting caught violating copyrights. It also mandated that ISPs retain a year's worth of each user's online history, made available to the government on-demand.
Users caught downloading copyrighted data first receive an email from their service provider warning against that activity. A second warning comes in the form of a mailed letter from HADOPI. Final enforcement is outright disconnection.
The Internet, remade
The right of corporations and governments to disconnect users from the Internet has also been discussed by the European Union amid debates on its telecom reforms, the US cable noted. The United States, while it does not have a similar law governing Internet access, has been cited in recent months as striving to bring its policies in-line with China and Europe, using Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to issue domain takedowns for sites they accuse of violating copyright laws.
Private corporations were also seen as acting on the US government's behalf in their censorship of WikiLeaks, with PayPal, Bank of America, MasterCard, Visa and Amazon.com ending all business ties with the site after US officials said they were investigating potential espionage or conspiracy charges against founder Julian Assange.
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is also considering important Internet regulations that critics say could fundamentally change how the Internet is managed, experienced and paid for. The commission's so-called "Net Neutrality" rules, due to be voted on Tuesday afternoon, could permit the creation of super-tiers of prioritized traffic and allow bandwidth rationing, placing caps on the amount of information users can download and implementing overage fees similar to voice minutes on mobile phone networks.
The US Senate was also expected to take up debate on the "Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act," which would give authorities even more leeway to order websites taken off the Internet's central domain name registry.
Even the United Kingdom was jumping onboard, tightening their network restrictions to the point or ordering ISPs to build a censorship infrastructure that blocks access to pornography, forcing users to go through another step to opt-in for adult content and identify themselves -- as opposed to simply declaring they are old enough under the law.
The United Nations is also considering a new Internet Governance Forum made up of member states only, excluding representatives from civil society and private industry in vital discussions on how to police the global Internet.
The first round of French copyright enforcement began in late Sept. and was said to have started scooping up 10,000 Internet protocol addresses per day, with the aim of detecting over 150,000 copyright violations per day as the efforts progressed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HADOPI_law
EXCERPT:
The HADOPI law or Creation and Internet law (French: Loi favorisant la diffusion et la protection de la création sur Internet,[1] "law promoting the distribution and protection of creative works on the internet") is a French law introduced during 2009 as a means to control and regulate internet access and encourage compliance with copyright laws. "HADOPI" is the government agency created by the eponymous law.
Despite strong backing from the President Nicolas Sarkozy, the bill was rejected by the French National Assembly on 9 April 2009.[2][3][4] The French government asked for reconsideration of the bill by the French National Assembly and it was adopted on 12 May 2009 by the assembly[5], and on 13 May 2009 by the French Senate.
The debate around the law has involved accusations of dubious tactics made against the promoters of the law. The content of the Government promotional website does not reflect the wording of the bill[6], while the French Wikipedia pages relating to HADOPI were falsified by the Ministry of Culture on 14 February 2009.[7], and a "petition of 10,000 artists" in support of the bill was challenged as numerous signatures are proven to not come from people engaging in any artistic activities described by the petition, to belong to non-existent people, or to belong to artists who denied having signed the petition[8].
On 10 June 2009, the Constitutional Council of France struck down the central, controversial, portion of HADOPI, that would have allowed sanctions against internet users accused of copyright violations (as opposed to being convicted for same), ruling that because "the Internet is a component of the freedom of expression" and "in French law the presumption of innocence prevails", only a judge can impose sanctions under the law.[9][10]
On 22 October 2009, the Constitutional Council of France approved a revised version of HADOPI, requiring judicial review before revoking a person's internet access, but otherwise resembling the original requirements.[11]
http://fontfeed.com/archives/french-anti-piracy-organisation-uses-pirated-font-in-ownlogo/
French Anti-Piracy Organisation Hadopi Uses Pirated Font In Own Logo
It is quite rare to see topics related to typography make the mainstream news. In a positive sense, Peter Verheul’s Rijksoverheid suite of custom typefaces for the Dutch National Government were a news item on Dutch national television. Less savoury were the backlash to Ikea’s switch to Verdana, and the indignation of the design community over the use of Papyrus in the James Cameron blockbuster Avatar (more in the next episode of ScreenFonts). These two cases were mostly confined to the “in-crowd”. The most recent case however exploded all over the internet in France this weekend, then made the national news media, and now is crossing the borders to an international audience. Why? Because we can safely argue the Hadopi logo story categorises as an epic FAIL – what internet lingo describes as the often hilarious combination of failure as a result of lack of skill or sound judgement on the one hand, and sweet irony on the other hand. The multiple layers of failure make this story a particularly tragic one.
First we need a little context. Since January 1st the controversial download law Hadopi has become effective in France. The name is short for Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet – roughly translated the High Authority Promoting the Distribution and Protection of Creative Works on the Internet. They follow in the footsteps of Great Britain whose Digital Economy Bill is very similar. Following a spectacular and controversial procedure, and after lengthy debates, the so-called Hadopi law passed last year. In other countries similar legislation is commonly known as the “three strikes” law. It consist of a procedure warning twice people who have illegally downloaded copyright-protected works, before shutting off their internet connection for an indefinite period of time. Not only is the whole household taken offline if any person living there is accused of three acts of infringement, it is also added to a list of addresses to which it is illegal to provide Internet access. To have internet access restored, the “offender” has to allow spyware to be installed on his/her computer, monitoring every single thing that happens on said cpu.
Although the European Parliament and other interest groups call upon fundamental rights to protest against such measures, it seems like a similar legislature may be introduced worldwide as the result of a new intellectual property agreement that is being drawn up behind closed doors. Needless to say Hadopi – the French agency of the same name that’s in charge of the country’s new anti-piracy scheme – isn’t exactly popular. They have come under close scrutiny of their opponents, who are eager to dig up any dirt they can find about them.
The original Hadopi logo presented on Friday, January 8, 2010.
In the early evening of January 9, the day after the Hadopi agency was officially installed, I noticed a tweet by Jean-Baptiste Levée. I wasn’t even aware of the Hadopi at that time, but the text in his tweet made me check his link immediately.
French copyright law Hadopi has an unauthorized use of custom font Bienvenue in its logo http://tweetphoto.com/8293377J E A N - B A P T I S T E L E V É E | “I have a Twitter alert set for the word “logo”. I don’t remember which tweet exactly notified me of the presentation of the Hadopi logo. The original announcement on the website of the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication had a link to a PDF announcing the birth of the logo. No need to try it now: since the eruption of the scandal the link on the page has been removed, and when you try to access the URL via Google cache it yields an Error 404 page. When I opened the downloaded document I immediately recognised the typeface in the logo as Bienvenue. I collaborated with Jean-François Porchez for two years until spring 2008, so I know his work pretty well. ; )”
It was Jean-Baptiste’s comment on a blog post on Graphism.fr, the blog by graphic designer Geoffrey Dorne, that confirmed the type in the Hadopi logo was indeed Bienvenue and got the ball rolling.
You may wonder now – where’s the problem? The type in a logo needn’t be custom designed. Of course you can use an existing font, either out of the box, or modified to better fit the intended shape or image. If all this is allowed by the End User Licence Agreement, what’s the big deal?
Bienvenue in use on a France Télécom branded store
Bienvenue in use on a France Télécom advertisement poster
Here’s the big deal. Bienvenue is an exclusive corporate typeface. It was designed in 2000 by Jean François Porchez for France Télécom, the leading French telephone and internet company. The type family was developed in conjunction with Landor Associates, who redesigned the corporate identity. It is intended for use in all France Télécom communication and advertising. The typeface consists of a family of four variations, plus a branding font, a semiserif titling font, and a pictogram font. Because Bienvenue was nominated for Trophée d’Or de la Typographie in 2001, it is quite well known within the design community.
So in short Bienvenue is a proprietary typeface for France Télécom, for exclusive use within the company, and as such was never to be made available for the general public – they have worldwide exclusivity in perpetuity. Yet somehow the typefaces made their way to the font sharers and pirate sites, and have since then become an illegal fan favourite. For example a couple of years ago I personally had a very hard time convincing a French fashion giant that Bienvenue, which had been specified for one of their brands by the agency responsible for their corporate image, could not be used as it infringed the exclusivity of France Télécom.
Bienvenue sample by Jean François Porchez
Hadopi logo simulated with Bienvenue by Jean François Porchez
By the end of the weekend the story was raging like a wildfire, and on Monday it even was a news item on LCI, the news channel of French commercial broadcaster TF1. Of course you have to appreciate the irony – the agency in charge of enforcing France’s new anti-piracy legislation using a pirated proprietary font in its very own logo. Bienvenue isn’t available for licensing, and neither France Télécom nor Jean François Porchez were contacted to request an exceptional permission to use it. It painfully demonstrates the amateurism and general cluelessness of the agency’s communication consultants, and puts Plan Créatif in a very bad spotlight. This Paris-based self-professed “militant agency” designed the logo after winning a competition organised for this purpose by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. To prove that it indeed is Bienvenue, Geoffrey Dorne created at the request of his brother Korben this gif superimposing the Demi weight stretched 110% on the Hadopi logo.
Bienvenue superimposed on the original Hadopi logo
Soon Hadopi and Plan Créatif were scrambling to rectify the snafu. On Monday, January 11, Plan Créatif sent out e-mails admitting the mistake, and claiming that the logo presented just before the weekend was in fact a “sketch”.
Logotype HADOPI: À la suite d’une erreur de manipulation informatique, une esquisse de logotype qui avait été écartée lors des phases traditionnelles de vérification de similitude, a été malencontreusement présentée comme solution graphique définitive. Cette erreur vient d’être réparée.This roughly translates as follows.
Logotype HADOPI: Due to an erroneous digital manipulation a sketch version of the logo which had been shelved during the traditional verification procedures was unfortunately presented as the final design solution. This error was corrected.The so-called “final version” of the logo was attached to this e-mail.
Indeed, the logo looks slightly different. The typeface this time is FS Lola, a design by Phil Garnham for FontSmith. The overall dimensions of the logo vary as well: the new version is less wide. Only one element remains unchanged – the full name in red set in Jeremy Tankard’s popular Bliss.
You’d think the story would end here, but whaddayaguess – it actually gets even worse. The important question now was if the initially presented logo indeed was a case of “erroneous digital manipulation” of files, or if the new logo was a more insidious kind of manipulation, a smoke screen to cover up the foul play. Just like some fellow bloggers, I contacted both FontSmith and Jeremy Tankard. They confirmed that FS Lola and Bliss were rush-ordered on Monday morning, January 11, the very day the new logo was presented.
Either way the logo infringed at least two licenses. Obviously Bliss which was used in both versions had never been licensed by Plan Créatif prior to last Monday, three days after the official presentation. Nor was FS Lola, and if the Bienvenue version was initially intended to be the final logo as we all surmise, then the typeface even isn’t available for licensing at all.
Yet the final blow still was to come. A simple search on the INPI website – the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle or National Institute for Intellectual Property – reveals that the original logo using Bienvenue was registered on November 16, 2009, almost two months ago, and published on Christmas eve. This dispels any doubt that the Bienvenue logo was indeed the intended design, and that the hastily cobbled-together new version presented this Monday is nothing but a subterfuge. We can safely conclude that this is one epic FAIL that will haunt the much-maligned Hadopi for a while.
Jean François Porchez. Photo by Olivier Roux
Although he is not at liberty to reveal any details yet, Jean François Porchez commented that KGA avocats – his lawyers in charge of this case – have initiated the procedure to contact all parties concerned with the aim to resolve this problem as fast as possible. Pending the resolution of the problem additional information will be divulged in due time. Understandably the Alliance française des designers (French Alliance of Designers) follows this case from close-by and supports the action by Porchez Typofonderie.
What does this convoluted story teach us? Porchez briefly commented in the news item on LCI mentioned above.
J E A N F R A N Ç O I S P O R C H E Z | “What we have here is a classic example, where the authority which is supposed to protect artists pirates my work. It makes me smile, but at the same time we need to find the best possible solution for this problem.”
The main lesson to be learned is that everyone is personally responsible for each and every font stored on his/her hard drive. Every person must be aware where those fonts come from, and be very cautious of freeware and shareware. Some of it is fine, but the vast majority is of dubious quality. And unless it is acquired from reputable websites, the origin of the good fonts can be very shady, if not to say illegal, as this case clearly illustrates.
The story on BoingBoing
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