French President Sued for Copyright Infringement

by Jordan Yerman | March 1, 2009 at 11:29 am

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French President Nicolas Sarkozy joins a grand tradition of political leaders calling for stringent intellectual-property laws, and then getting caught for violating those same laws.

It's difficult enough to swallow the tortured reasoning behind some of these copyright laws without all the hypocrisy getting in the way.

The president and his administration has been well known for trying to ratchet up copyright laws not only in France, but throughout Europe as well. He has pressured and passed the first “three strikes” law that gets a user disconnected based on three formal copyright complaints.

He admitted to using the artists song multiple times for a political campaign which goes beyond the scope of an obtained license. So the administration offered to settle the case for a symbolic 1 Euro. The band rejected the offer calling it insulting.

Was Sarkozy expecting a different reaction from the band? If so, what?

As stated above, Sarkozy is just another in a long line of copyright violators, including the MPAA itself.

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