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France on Track to Legalize Peer-to-Peer Downloading

By Sam Fineman
January 03, 2006

France's lower house of parliament recently has voted to legalize peer-to-peer file-sharing of films and music on the Internet, unleashing a wave of protest from the country's film, audiovisual and music industry organizations.

If the measure passes in the upper house, France would become the first country to legalize peer-to-peer downloading at a time when most Western nations are battling to curb illegal downloading on the Internet.

Introduced as two amendments to a government bill aimed at toughening digital copyright laws, the measure was approved by a vote of 30-28 last month, with very few of the National Assembly's 577 members present. The amendments have recommended that Internet users pay a fixed-royalties fee of $8.50 per month – in the form of a monthly subscription charge ' for unlimited downloading, thus legalizing all file sharing deemed for personal use.

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