Excuse my English, but thats the only way I can say loudly that I am going to stay away from Fnac from now on. Why ? because Fnac has the ability to decide how much money I will pay where and whe, and in addition they are messing with my Internet access.
Few days ago France went backward in time. Just few weeks after a Canadian research prooved that the Internet downloads not only didn't damange the sales of music it actually increased them. Few weeks after Warner Music owner admitted that they were stupid to fight their customers instead of changing their attitude. But France like a bull that is completely blinded by the red rag kept on straight to the trap of the middle ages.
I am not surprised by the politicians, they were never smart and the two ministresses thats were celebrating the agreement probably do not know what the internet really means. FNAC is something else ! FNAC thats sells music (CDs), Music players (MP3), DVD, Computers and even the Medias wants to make sure they can make the maximum out of us the consumers. This whole step was led by FNACs CEO.
FNAC thats sells Music and Videos expensively and if you want to back your stuff up you will find that the cost of a DVDR is 6-10 times more then in most countries !
FNAC thats sells all kind of MP3 but make sure you can fill them only with the music you buy through them. FNAC that is controlling the market in France and makes enough money without going into the citizens pocket because no matter if we buy or download we are using some of FNACs stuff to do it.
The truth is that I have no problem with the law, i do not mess with French copyrighted material as I don't speak good enough French, but I an annoyed to see that this whole beautiful internet infrastructure that is something really unique in the technologically primitive France will be useless simply because FNAC wants to make more money.
So forget about me, I can find anything FNAC sells cheaper without feeling an idiot !
No, it is not surprising:
This is part of Sarko’s agenda to push the limits of France’s constitutional law by taking away privacy rights (this means that the government will censor and more closely monitor France’s web traffic) and making the large corporations and money interests more powerful and richer at the expense of everyone else) while cutting back on essential things like healthcare and education. Hench, this idiot from the FNAC gets to decide how you use the Internet.
But then again, the cons who voted for Sarko will get what they deserve.
not sure its Sarkozy’s fault but…
The way i see it even before Sarkozy the biggest companies had too much power and monopolies are something very common in France. the cellulars, the transportation systems, and then FNAC.
I don’t even see it as controling the web as with all the respect what they believe they can do is actually impossible. On the other hand its time to punish FNAC where it really hurts, exactly in the place they wanted to make bigger, their bloody pockets.
Not all of those companies can be managed by a consumer boycots but FNAC can be, FNAC has potantial competition even though they use some unfair methods considered illegal in many places (like « we will compare to the cheapest price you will find »). FNAC has competition and I personally, being only a year and a half in France found better stores, better prices, better service.
Gangsters win for now
Like in America the entertainment industry are gangsters trying to monopolize the sale of digital content. Many artists benefit greatly from file sharing. This will not stop file sharing until the price of the content is lowered to a point that the people are happy. There are ways around being caught and now more will be thought of. They just don’t get it. As for the government being involved. The government is a puppet to those that pay enough.
Oh and another thing
why not make printers and photo copiers illegal as they do the same thing. Media changes sometimes and those that fight it will be left behind. Artist have to except that there product my not be worth as much, like before digital. The popular ones are paid way to much anyways. Maybe just ban the internet like China
great comparison
The problem is that we cannot do anything against politicians, we have a beautiful bandwidth i France and a great infrastructure which will be useless without the file sharing. and the ISPs are still fighting for our pockets (numericable offer 100mb) all this worth nothing under these new rules. FNACs and such like would love to see us back to buying a damn whole CD for just a single song.