French Broadband ISP Vivendi Calls on UK to Tackle Illegal Downloads
By: MarkJ - 27 October, 2009 (12:18 PM) - Views: 583 - Categories: Fixed Line Broadband, Illegal Downloads

The CEO of French broadband ISP Vivendi, Jean-Bernard Levy, has called on the UK to follow France's lead and clamp down on Internet piracy or risk damage to the economy. Ironically the current UK proposals are now technically tougher (over the top more like) than those adopted in France which, after an intervention from the country’s constitutional court, now guarantees "suspected" illegal file sharers a court hearing prior to disconnection.

Vivendi's CEO, Jean-Bernard Levy, told a British government-sponsored forum on the creative industry via Reuters:

"At Vivendi, we are in the content business, we are in the telecom business and there is no internal debate. The priority is not to grow ... traffic on the ISPs. The priority is that creators, people who develop content, should find a way (to be rewarded). It seems to me so obvious that Britain should be even more in favour of protecting and developing its media industries, its own heritage."

However the opposing argument, at least one of them, is that 'development' is precisely what the media industry has not been doing; preferring instead to rely on old distribution models and forgoing the creation of new channels to combat illegal alternatives.

By now all of the various arguments have been well rehearsed, repeated and are now fully entrenched, though nearly everybody - except Rights Holders and Peter Mandelson - seems to agree that immediate disconnection without trial is not the correct way to proceed. At least France gives people a chance to defend themselves in court first.

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