[pp.int.general] working on a story about the rise of the pirate movement

[Valentin Villenave]

2009/4/9 Evgeny Morozov <evgeny.morozov at gmail.com>:

> Also, if there is something ground-breaking/really interesting happening in
> your country with regards to the pirate movement, I'd appreciate if you
> could send me a private message. Many thanks!
> Evgeny Morozov
> blog: http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com

Greetings,

I just wanted to take this as an opportunity to mention that here in
France, two interesting events have just happened.

Firstly, a very bad law that the government has been trying to
validate for months has just been rejected by the Parliament (although
I'm afraid that, as usual, they'll just make them vote again and again
until they finally get a chance to make what they want). This law is
harmful to citizens, privacy and culture; it has been widely rejected
by online movements (including us) and it looks like this
"pedagogical" action on the Web has finally paid off (even some MPs
that are close to the government have voted against it).

The second event is certainly less ground-breaking, but it does well
illustrate what we do; as you may have read earlier on this list,
we've just released our yearly Free Music compilation installment.
Although the French "Parti Pirate" is still on his way to being
registered as a political party, we try to work, on one hand, with
artists, and on the other hand with various
movements/organisations/networks that deal with civil liberties, or
Internet rights, or Free licences, and so on... Such movements are
unbelievably numerous and different in France, and getting them to
communicate with each other is not easy (though gradually more
successful, as today's events show).

And of course, none of us would still be here if it were'nt for the
International Pirate Party, which we very enthusastically support --
btw, enough said; I'm sure the guys out there have many more
interesting things to tell you :-)

Regards,
Valentin Villenave