The French Law for Trust in the Digital Economy (Loi pour la Confiance en l'Économie Numérique, or LCEN) adopted in 2004 and frequently updated since then, regulates censorship and Internet content removal in France.

Moratorium on blocking measures

Paris, 13 May 2013 — Pierre Lescure has handed in his report [fr] on culture at the digital era to French President François Hollande1. La Quadrature du Net denounces a flawed political process revealing the harmful influence of industrial groups at all levels of policy-making. How will the French government react to Lescure's proposal to expand the scope of competence of the audiovisual media regulator (CSA) to the Internet? Will it to pursue former President Sarkozy's anti-sharing policies and even supplement them with new ACTA-like measures encouraging online intermediaries to become private copyright police?

• 1. Pierre Lescure lead a committee advising the French government on the future of copyright law Hadopi, the French "three strikes" administration.

Paris, 10 May 2013 — The publication of the report on culture and the Internet requested by French president Hollande to Pierre Lescure – former CEO of Canal +, a major TV station owned by Vivendi-Universal – will be the object of a major media buzz in France. For those interested in what would be ambitious public policies adapted to the digital era, La Quadrature du Net brings back on the table its Elements for the reform of copyright and related cultural policies. Will those 14 propositions, attentive to the freedoms and uses of everyone, to the interests of authors and other contributors, be a part of it, or will the Lescure report perpetuate the repressive policies led by Nicolas Sarkozy?

Now that the ACTA treaty has been rejected by the European Parliament, a period opens during which it will be possible to push for a new regulatory and policy framework adapted to the digital era. Many citizens and MEPs support the idea of reforming copyright in order to make possible for all to draw the benefits of the digital environment, engage into creative and expressive activities and share in their results. In the coming months and years, the key questions will be: What are the real challenges that this reform should address? How can we address them?

This text provides an answer to the first question and tables a consistent set of proposals to tackle the second one. It is available in English, French, and Spanish. The proposals address copyright reform as well as related culture and media policy issues. These elements are intended for being used by reform proponents according to their own orientations. One will have to consider nonetheless the interdependency between various proposals. This text was drafted by Philippe Aigrain, with contributions from Lionel Maurel and Silvère Mercier and was critically reviewed by the co-founders and staff of La Quadrature du Net. It is published in parallel on the author's blog and on La Quadrature du Net's site.

This text is open to any comments. You can add your own reflections or questions here.

La Quadrature du Net is among the signatories of the Public domain Manifesto. This text was drafted within the COMMUNIA European Network for the public domain funded by the European Commission.

Nota for English speaking-readers: the notion of a mutualised scheme is less familiar in English than in Latin languages (in part because of the use of "mutual" for companies). We use this expression for schemes where every potential user contributes equally to the funding of a global ecosystem of activities.

Two imperatives

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.