Citizens, Artists and Consumers in Favour of the Legal Recognition of File Sharing

The Création-Public-Internet (CPI) platform brings together consumer, artist and citizen organisations such as La Quadrature du Net in France. Today, the CPI is launching a campaign for the legal recognition of not-for profit file sharing between individuals and for instituting new statutory resource pooling for the fair and democratically governed financing of digital creation.

In its press release, Creation-Public-Internet expressed its indignation in the face of France’s stubborn repressive policy running counter to the development paths of digital culture and the economy. The CPI platform asks all candidates in the 2012 French presidential election and all political parties to commit to creating the conditions for an enlarged access to culture, in particular through the legalisation of file sharing between individuals without aim of profit.

The CPI platform was created two years ago in reaction to the HADOPI three-strike law ¹Laws of this kind were recently denounced by the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, see http://www.laquadrature.net/en/un-report-on-freedom-of-expression-bashes-g8-acta-hadopi and brings together the “Pour le Cinéma” collective, la Quadrature du Net, the SAMUP (Musician Artists and Teachers Union) and l’UFC-Que Choisir (the main French consumer organization). The CPI and its members reaffirm their commitment to making access to culture an effective right through the recognition of a right to file sharing in a form that is respectful of artists’ rights. The current context is more favourable than ever, as the repressive laws and policies did not bring one euro of additional income to artists and creators.

The proposal of the CPI platform covers all media, including Internet-native media and works that have been distributed in digital form to consumers (whether commercially or not), including of course works that have been voluntarily shared by their authors. It relies on a € 5 per month contribution per broadband Internet subscription²Cost to be adjusted according to future mobile broadband development. which would produce € 1.3 billion per year in income and financing of new works.

“There is now a remarkable opportunity to break away from the obscurantist refusal to grant individuals the right to share digital culture among themselves. At the same time, the financial contribution will significantly help sustain the activities of an ever increasing number of creators.” declared Philippe Aigrain, co-founder of the citizen group La Quadrature du Net.