France : honouring lobbyists

Recently, Michael Geist warned the Canadian government was paying the copyright lobby to do its lobbying

But over here in France, we go a step further. We decorate our top lobbyists.

On June 20, 2006, the French minister of European Affairs, Catherine Colonna, honoured Sylvie Forbin by making her a Knight of the National Order of Merit (Ordre National du Mérite), an Order of Chivalry founded in 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle.

Forbin was an EU bureaucrat when in 2001 she was hired by Vivendi Universal to lobby lawmakers on copyright and media issues.

"I am fully aware," the minister teased, "that the owners of Vivendi Universal did not call you so that you explain them the mysteries of the codecision, or that you betray the secrets of comitology. They called you first of all because of your competence and influence."

Going into more detail, "This work of influence, you had the chance to carry it out recently on a topic that mobilized the whole of France from Charles Aznavour to the activist internet user," the minister went on.

"Naturally I am talking about the law on copyright and neighbourhood rights in the information society, the iPod law, as the International Herald Tribune calls it."

Forbin was the chief lobbyist for Vivendi Universal, as the IHT noted in May, stating :

"A section of the law that has become known as the ’Vivendi amendment’ has angered software companies, which say it holds them legally responsible for preventing their products from being used to pirate copyrighted material - another pioneering legal principle.

"The energetic Vivendi lobbyist responsible for promoting the amendment, Sylvie Forbin, was featured on posters during a march in Paris this month by several hundred activists opposed to copy-protection measures.

"Forbin made no apologies on behalf of Vivendi, which as owner of the recording studio Universal Music Group stands to lose money when its songs are copied freely.

" ’Vivendi contributed to this new idea along with others, and we are pleased that it is now recognized as law,’ said Forbin, Vivendi’s vice president for public and European affairs. The outcome serves the interest of Internet users and content providers’."

The law was voted in by the Parliament on June 30, but the opposition and center parties will ask the Conseil Constitutionnel to ascertain whether or not the procedure and the provisions themselves comply with the French constitution.

It will take several weeks before the law finally comes into force.