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French President Sued for Copyright Infringement

zeropaid.com — This may very well become the most ironic stories of 2009 in the copyright debate. The CBC is reporting that French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sued by an independent band for copyright infringement.

Who dugg this? Made popular Mar 1, 2009

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  • Mayfoev, on 03/01/2009, -10/+154This news is inaccurate.

    It is Sarkozy's party (UMP) which is culprit of copyright infringement, not Sarkozy nor his administration.
  • dvgrhl, on 03/01/2009, -0/+107I wonder what response I would get if I offered the RIAA a symbolic $1.
  • earthforce1, on 03/01/2009, -3/+89Glad to know hypocrisy is still alive and well in politics. (As usual)
  • urbanoms, on 03/01/2009, -3/+871 Euro??
  • absentmindedjwc, on 03/01/2009, -3/+72money is on the band not winning the case
  • senorla, on 03/01/2009, -0/+64FYI, the band is MGMT and they are on Columbia Records so definitely not an "independent band." That doesn't make what they did any less wrong, but let's stick to the facts here.
  • somedudemanguy, on 03/01/2009, -1/+59The sooner they realize that everyone pirates, the better it will be
  • borez, on 03/01/2009, -3/+52Why inaccurate? Surely Sarkozy represents his party.
  • vulcanius, on 03/01/2009, -3/+50This is Digg, we don't care so long as we have someone important to point the finger at.
  • purplesawdust, on 03/01/2009, -0/+42Is a court notice symbolic also?
  • Radan, on 03/01/2009, -0/+38This is freaking outrageous! Not only did he use the song _commercially_ without permission, but trying to settle it with €1?! And all this while campaigning against piracy? Is he retarded or just a hypocrite?

    I hope this at least makes him understand how absurd and unclear the copyright laws are at the moment.
  • inactive, on 03/01/2009, -2/+39That's 40,000 Canadian.
  • SitPoMk, on 03/01/2009, -2/+29Soon to be 80,000 USD
  • rif42, on 03/01/2009, -0/+261 Euro > 1 USD

    You know, RIAA is counting the cents also!
  • hyAxis, on 03/02/2009, -0/+23120,089,000,000,000 ZWD (before Feb 2nd 2009).
  • weetiger, on 03/01/2009, -0/+23I think when they say "independent band" they are using the incredibly ignorant and annoying phrase as a genre. With no correlation to whether they are signed to a label or not.
  • BxBoy, on 03/01/2009, -1/+18even Obama?
  • Zoojeff, on 03/01/2009, -2/+18Totally right
  • ALPHABETlQUE, on 03/01/2009, -1/+16I love MGMT

    http://stereogum.com/archives/mgmt-sues-president- ...
  • AlienMushroom, on 03/01/2009, -7/+22***** Sarkozy! He's the biggest joke in the history of France!
  • inactive, on 03/02/2009, -2/+14$10,000,000,000 AUD
  • Khast, on 03/01/2009, -2/+13Since this guy is the figurehead strongly against piracy, I give a symbolic:

    BOOM, headshot!
  • Zap2, on 03/01/2009, -2/+121 Euro?


    Maybe if the president comes out and say "Hey, I screwed up to..everyone does it, lets make piracy laws reasonable"....but just one euro alone, what would that prove?
  • Schmich, on 03/01/2009, -1/+11I believe he's both a hypocrite and a retard...most likely also full of himself.
  • anteyekon4myst, on 03/01/2009, -1/+10CBC FTW!
  • anthropodeus, on 03/01/2009, -4/+13@BxBoy

    especially obama. the cost of the stimulus and the new budget combined (3.5$ trillion + 850$ billion) comes out to 14,500$ per citizen. if pirates take what's not theirs, the government is the biggest pirate of all.
  • appleofdischord, on 03/02/2009, -0/+9Dugg for accuracy.
  • aufte, on 03/01/2009, -2/+10I'm not.
  • Caligatio, on 03/01/2009, -2/+9"He admitted to using the artists song multiple times for a political campaign which goes beyond the scope of an obtained license."

    IMO, there's a large difference between an alleged violation of an obtained agreement and just downloading music. It's really a stretch to try to relate this to the silly 3-strike law.
  • rileyhallwood, on 03/01/2009, -1/+8can someone explain how paying $1 euro is in any way symbolic in this situation. isnt it just... not paying the amount they owe?
  • svenr, on 03/02/2009, -0/+7First time kinda funny.
    Second time, hmm ... okay.
    Third time, lame.
  • BxBoy, on 03/01/2009, -0/+7Of course not, what was I thinking!
  • inactive, on 03/01/2009, -1/+7You have illegally reverse engineered the content of this article in violation of the DMCA.
  • melimeloo, on 03/01/2009, -0/+6i'm french and i agree
  • Brethil, on 03/01/2009, -0/+6No worries, he's protected by ad-hoc laws that make him immune to the law. Oh wait, that's Berlusconi
  • Psylo, on 03/01/2009, -1/+7The society who organised the events is owned by Luc Besson. This ***** is a producer. He fights against P2P and filesharing.
  • SuperMoses, on 03/01/2009, -0/+6I wonder if the laws Sarkozy and his party are proposing suggest that a symbolic $1 is a sufficient fine.
  • SuperMoses, on 03/01/2009, -0/+6They're not an independent band. A lot of indie bands love file sharing.
  • LeepII, on 03/01/2009, -2/+7Bush had The Beatles on his Ipod, that was illegal when he had it.
  • inactive, on 03/02/2009, -0/+5I would do his wife though.
  • penguinofspades, on 03/01/2009, -0/+5lord knows that when you start pointing fingers, somebody is gonna get poked. and i would like you to know that its not my intention to poke either of you
  • wild, on 03/02/2009, -0/+4So if the DNC was infringing music, it would be accurate to say Obama would be the one being sued? I don't think it works like that.
  • inactive, on 03/01/2009, -1/+5Actually, the Diggers it DOES make it less wrong. I can't tell you how many comments I have read saying that it is OK to do this to bands with major labels, But not with independent bands. Didn't you know Diggers live in Sherwood Forest?
  • Schmich, on 03/01/2009, -2/+6Agreed. I'm still laughing at when he threatened to stay away from the NATO meeting if he wasn't given the seat next to the Secretary General. He does things like this all the time, he's a big boy alright!
  • tnoy, on 03/02/2009, -0/+3Its not illegal just because the RIAA says it is.
  • Canadaa, on 03/01/2009, -0/+3too bad it didn't get a link to the original article

    i'm tired of links to blogs about news
  • Yazilliclick, on 03/02/2009, -0/+3And their not being sued, they were simply threatened to be sued if they didn't pay the copyright fees which the party manager has since said they will pay.

    Linking to horrible blog that just repeats an article is bad enough but linking to one that gets every one of the facts wrong is *****.
  • jwk4heels, on 03/02/2009, -0/+3And it's poorly written, on top of that. Buried.
  • gfxlonghorn, on 03/01/2009, -2/+5This article has no content what so ever.
  • Yage2006, on 03/02/2009, -1/+3Take away his internets.
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