Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

October 9, 2009 -

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a backer of tough new piracy laws in that country, comes off as a bit of a hypocrite after being accused of a pair of copyright infringements.

Sarkozy’s “Hadopi” law was passed just last month and features a three-strike policy for illegal down loaders. Unfortunately it would appear that Sarkozy is already down to his last strike, as he has been accused of two misuses—making 400 unauthorized copies of a DVD and copyright infringement related to his use of an MGMT song at a political rally.

The MGMT song misuse cost Sarkozy 30,000 Euros (approximately $44,112 U.S.). More galling may be the fact that the publisher of the DVD allegedly copied by Sarkozy only created 50 copies itself.

Via Boing Boing

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Comments

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by Magic on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 02:48.

This is great, it's like an episode of Yes Minister.

I can just imagine a minister citing digital piracy as a scourge of the free market and so attempting to pass off a law ... only to be revealed as a hypocrite at the last minute. Classic.

I wonder how he'll try to weasel out of it? He'll either open up to it and take the hit (And can surely afford to pay the fine) or blame it on a junior minister or something ludicrous.

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by SpaceGhost2K on Sat, 10/10/2009 - 01:32.

So wait, did he do it, or did one of his people do it? If he did it himself or signed off on it, that's different than having a person on your team responsible for getting the music and them breaking the law without your knowledge.

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by ZAR on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 23:42.

Sarkozy is not Berlusconi? Not Berlusconi enough! ;) ZAR.

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by PumaFau on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 19:46.

Politicans are hypocrites thats a fact of life

Never underestimate the power of idiots in large amounts.

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by gamegod25 on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 16:42.

wait wait wait how does making 400 copies only count as one strike?

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by killatia on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 16:39.

This news made my day! Talk about a hyprocrit and a fail!

http://www.magicinkgaming.com/

http://www.killatia.com/

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by GrimCW on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 15:19.

its a french spitzer!

love how these politicians do this though. They go against something but are then cought doing it themselves like they hadn't a clue! worse yet they often don't have a clue what their fighting WHILE their doing it.

who was that Congressman that was trying to have semi auto hunting guns banned, but then busted using one to hunt after getting one sent to him by the NRA, then claimed he "didn't know" it was semi auto? proves to me that he hadn't a clue either A. what a semi auto weapon is, (i mean come on, is it really hard to tell the differance between semi and non? physical chamber loading may be a simple hint) or B. really didn't care and was just prodding for votes.

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by ZippyDSMlee on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 15:02.

Unfortunately 70% if not more of "piracy" involves friends share stuff with friends, and because of that you can not write it all off as industry damaging. Focus on thigns that make money from direct sale,donations and advertising these are iron clad things that can be easily targeted and removed. If you target "free trading" it will though unintended (or most likely intended) consequence that will make most legal things illegal because they can make it so via their lobbying efforts.

The media industry is either going to have to change or become the net police, and it seems more likely they will become the net fascists than anything else.

Until lobbying is a hanging offense I choose anarchy! Stop supporting big media and furthering the criminalization of consumers!! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/

---

http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by Valdearg on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 14:41.

Haha.. What a friggin hypocrite..

Re: Sacre Bleu: French Prez a Pirate

Submitted by SeanB on Fri, 10/09/2009 - 14:32.

"More galling may be the fact that the publisher of the DVD allegedly copied by Sarkozy only created 50 copies itself."

HAHAHAHAHA, this blows all RIAA and MPAA estimates out of the water. Imagine thier next campaign, "PROOF that internet pirates are stealing 80% of our sales!"

Shout box

Wonderkarp: dont fool yourself, Technogeek. Remember Mass Effect 3? How about the ferver against Phil Fish?10/19/2014 - 10:18am

MechaTama31: None of which is the fault or responsibility of the people who are not trolling, harassing, threatening, doxxing, etc. So why is their opinion hostage to the people who are?10/19/2014 - 10:06am

Technogeek: If the developer were male there wouldn't have been a "conversation" in the first place.10/19/2014 - 2:27am

Monte: trolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm

Monte: Papa: Not the first time we've had a journalism scandals before, but the harassment never got close to this level; the difference with this scandal is that feminists are involved. Without the feminist angle, their would be A LOT less harrassment10/18/2014 - 9:15pm

Papa Midnight: Monte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm

Avalongod: I think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm

Avalongod: @Monte, well the trolls made death threats that came to police (and media attention). I think this is tapping into a larger issue outside of games about how women are treated in society (like all the "real rape" stuff during the last election)10/18/2014 - 3:28pm

Wonderkarp: Zippy : Havent tried the PS4 controller. might later.10/18/2014 - 2:37pm

Monte: Seirously, If Quinn was not involved and GG was instead about something like the Mordor Marketing contracts, the trolling would have never grown so vile and disgusting. There have been plenty of movements in the past that never sufferred from behavior..10/18/2014 - 1:57pm

Monte: We have seen scandel's before but the trolling has never been as vile as what we see with GG. Trolls usually have such a tiny voice you can barely notice them, but its like moths to a flame whenever femistist are involved.10/18/2014 - 1:53pm

ZippyDSMlee: Wonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm

MaskedPixelante: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327940/ Night Dive starts charging for freeware.10/18/2014 - 12:21pm

Matthew Wilson: the sad thing is there are trolls on both sides of this. people need to stop acting like their side is so pure.10/18/2014 - 12:19pm

MechaTama31: So, only speak out on a scandal that hasn't attracted trolls? I wouldn't hold my breath...10/18/2014 - 10:49am

Monte: I feel like GG just needs to die. The movement is FAR to tainted by hatred and BS for it to be useful for any conversation. Let GG die, and then rally behind the NEXT gaming journalism scandal, and start the conversation fresh.10/18/2014 - 10:33am

quiknkold: and we dont have a Dovakin to call a cease fire10/17/2014 - 7:37pm

quiknkold: The whole thing is Futile. Both sides are so buried deep in their trenchs that there isnt a conversation. Its just Finger Pointing, Name Calling, Doxxing, Threats. there needs to be a serious conversation, and GG isnt it.10/17/2014 - 7:37pm

quiknkold: I thought it was a good article. Jeff is right. I feel like GamerGate did destroy its message. I am for Ethics in game journalism, but man. so much hate. and its on both sides. I've seen some awful stuff spewed on twitter. Its a big reason why I exited..10/17/2014 - 7:34pm

Matthew Wilson: while he focused on gg, he did call out both sides crap.10/17/2014 - 7:18pm

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