The New York Times reports on the French President Sarkozy choosing the side of the big media companies in going hard after consumers sharing movies and music over the Internet. The 'balanced' deal is that on one hand internet traffic will be monitored for downloads by the ISP's and 'commission' (read: the download police) will condemn citizens. On the the other hands the content producers are 'obliged' (kindly asked) to distribute content online faster (please define 'faster') and without technical restrictions by which music unreadable on certain platforms (which I interpret as: Let's blame Apple and the iPod, they don't have any big operations in France anyway.).
The 'deal' is what they call a 'tripartite' (three-way) in which the citizens are NOT included, only the 'state', 'rights holders' and 'access providers'.
It really looks like Sarkozy has been hanging out too much with Mr. Bush lately. Over the past weeks the streets of Paris have been filled with people protesting for more money, I hope to see many more protesting for their basic rights. Rather sooner then later Bush will com to take them away just like he did in the U.S..
Or as TechCrunch puts it:
