Torrent is a word, and you can't ban words, rules French court

The High Court of Paris has decided there's a limit to France's unpopular anti-copying regime: Google and Bing can't be required to block the word “torrent” from their search results just because BitTorrent is sometimes used for piracy. The case was brought by the Syndicat National de l'édition Phonographique, France's record …

[Khaptain]

De plus en plus ridicule

I would also like to make a request to the SNP and ask that they remove "Kendji Girac, Shy’m, and Christophe Willem" from public view as I would consider them a safety risk to public health. Hearing any of them gives headaches and severe amounts of nausea.

What these people truly fail to realize is that the internet is merely a vector, it is not the cause. The internet is a very dynamic vector, today it's torrents, tomorrow it will be Dark Web Treasure Chests or FTTH hidden VPNs..

For once I am satisfied that the French judicial system has made a correct decision.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: De plus en plus ridicule

What you failed to realize is that Google and Microsoft, which were on trial, are not "the Internet", but companies.

[Tromos]

OK, they can't block 'torrent', but I see no reason for not complying with the other part of their request and removing their names from all searches.

[Anonymous Coward]

torrent

I declare this month's word to click on as "tuerrenta". :)

[Alister]

Dear sir, I wish to complain, I am a fan of fast flowing rivers, and have recently been unable to satisfy my obsession as I am unable to google "raging torrent".

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Well, if that's what floats your boat...

[John Brown (no body)]

At least locally, torrenting is a description of heavy rain too. eg whey man, it's torrentin' doon!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the world would be better off...

If they blocked words like :

Bieber

Kanye

Taylor

Paris

Trump

Etc...

[Richard 22]

Re: I think the world would be better off...

Can't see a French court banning the word Paris...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I think the world would be better off...

... unless it's followed by "Hilton". On your next trip, try to look for a different hotel brand :)

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: I think the world would be better off...

you forgot Kardashian!

[Mag07]

It seems the only reason for this exercise was to make unknown artists known; at least in name. Have to say it's a way more cost effective strategy than your main stream celebrity marketing.

[Anonymous Coward]

le torrant

showing results for LE TORRENT

[JohnG]

"...a trio of French artists – Kendji Girac, Shy’m, and Christophe Willem. SNEP wanted to use Article L336-2 of France's intellectual property law to force Google and Microsoft to delete searches that included both “torrent” and any of the artists' names."

If Google and/or Microsoft were feeling vindictive, they might choose to simply fail to return results of searches for the names of the three artists concerned, just to be on the safe side. After all, that would encompass the request of the SNEP.

[DubyaG]

And also remove any results for all reference to the SNEP. So, there!

[Anonymous Noel Coward]

Banning words, eh?

I wonder what people would do when they're subjected to a [this word has been banned] of abuse?

[John Brown (no body)]

To be fair, they were only requesting a block on searches of a word where the search ALSO included the named artists. A bit like Google not blocking searches for Paris except when the search ALSO included the lterm "Hilton sex tape"

[Spudley]

Much simpler solution

These artists have wasted their time and money taking this thing to court when there was a much simpler solution available to them.

All they need to do is release a song with the name "Torrent". Preferrably make it a good song that people actually want to listen to. Get it reviewed, play-listed, written about, talked about.

Now, suddenly, anyone doing a google search for your name plus "torrent" will find that the dodgy download links are swamped out by legitimate links about your music.

The first artist that does this will win the game.

[ecofeco]

Re: Much simpler solution

Genius. Seriously. Up voted.

[John Lilburne]

"just because BitTorrent is sometimes used for piracy."

Er no almost all of BitTorrent traffic is piracy some say upto 99.7% of it is.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2010/07/only-03-of-files-on-bit-torrent-confirmed-to-be-legal/

Contrary to geek fantasy the world and its dog isn't downloading linux distros via bittorrent on a daily basis, or massive games from the publishers. They are downloading films, music, and tv shows.

[Anonymous Coward]

" the world and its dog isn't downloading linux distros via bittorrent on a daily basis"

He's right! I'm a Linux user and I can't tell the difference between a torrent and this dead crab.

[no-one in particular]

> "just because BitTorrent is sometimes used for piracy."

> Er no almost all of BitTorrent traffic is piracy some say upto 99.7% of it is.

Leaving aside the unassailable statistical accuracy of "some say", how does that stack up against the use of, say, HTTP or FTP for piracy? At what level of piracy (and other undesirable activity) should those other channels start to be denigrated?

[heyrick]

"should those other channels start to be denigrated?"

Especially considering that this morning before work I watched three videos on YouTube, none of which was put there by the artist of their publisher...

[John Brown (no body)]

"Leaving aside the unassailable statistical accuracy of "some say"

Ever since watching a couple of episodes of Ancient Astronauts and hearing the phrase "Some ancient astronaut theorists say...." so many times per episode, I'm extremely wary of anyone making claims that include "some say.."

[TheVogon]

"Er no almost all of BitTorrent traffic is piracy some say upto 99.7% of it is."

That's still "sometimes".

[John Lilburne]

That's still "sometimes".

No its the reverse. Sometimes means 'occasionally' or once in a while. It would be far more accurate to say "just because BitTorrent is sometimes NOT used for piracy." However, I note that the phrase has now been removed from the article.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: That's still "sometimes".

The phrase has not been removed.

[TheVogon]

Re: That's still "sometimes".

"Sometimes means 'occasionally' or once in a while"

It also means 'in certain cases but not always'.

Anyway I'm dubious of your claim of 99.7% of traffic seeing as Linux versions etc. are commonly torrented. 99.7% of hosted files on some torrent hosts maybe. A citation is required...

[Vic]

Contrary to geek fantasy the world and its dog isn't downloading linux distros via bittorrent on a daily basis

Well, I'm running a couple of CentOS torrents, and I can assure you that someone *is* downloading from them on a daily basis.

Vic.

[Anonymous Coward]

Distributing Linux via Torrent is violating the GPLv2, that's why

The FSF itself said it:

"[...] downloading binaries of GPL-covered programs with BitTorrent violated GPL version 2, because with BitTorrent every downloader also redistributes."

That little nugget appeared in their rant against ZFS on Linux

https://www.fsf.org/licensing/zfs-and-linux

[Potemkine]

"Prehistoric music industry, Three feet in la brea tar"...

When Greed is not enough, you can always count on the Recording Industry to go a step further.

[FuzzyWuzzys]

So based on that we should ban the following words too, despite all having perfectly legal and valuable reasons to be searched for...

pirate

piracy

hack

crack

download

rip-off

steal

theif

screener

mp3

mp4

avi

Well you get the idea.

[Anonymous Noel Coward]

I don't see "child" on that list...

[FredBloggs61]

Won't somebody please think of the children!!!