French Judges Take Stand Against File-Sharing Convictions
Wired News has a story about French judges engaging in a little judicial activism by suspending the sentences of people previously convicted of swapping files over P2P networks.
Now, in a widening rift, the powerful president of the French magistrates union has begun to openly advocate decriminalizing online trading in copyrighted works for personal use.
In an amazing (alarming) sense of rationality, one of the magistrates says that new laws must be enacted that can appropriately deal with the protection of intellectual property in the digital age, while also protecting the “weak” (read: cash-strapped) generation of MP3 downloaders who have become the target of multinational corporate lawsuits.
And, if I can add a thought: these corporations are hoping to twist IP laws created in an analog time-period to fit the current digital age. And they are doing this, by and large, through court cases against ill-funded opponents, which makes for, I think, bad law.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.
And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.
The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers.
Plug-in hybrids are often sold as a transition to EVs, but new data from Europe shows we’re still underestimating the emissions they produce.
How scientists traced a mysterious covid case back to six toilets
When wastewater surveillance turns into a hunt for a single infected individual, the ethics get tricky.
Google DeepMind’s new generative model makes Super Mario–like games from scratch
Genie learns how to control games by watching hours and hours of video. It could help train next-gen robots too.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.