Things are going crazy in France right now, these last days, several startups have been put on trial, either because they do RSS aggregation (Fuzz.fr and many many more) or because they do UGC and ratings (Justeacote.com, Note2be…).
Most RSS aggregation website sued are in trouble because they have displayed a feed coming from a popular People & gossip magazine, and UGC/user rating website are sued because they wanted to have their users rate teactcher, restaurants, bars… you name it (all part of an informal lobby/union with its own privileges in France, and among those privileges, a total lack of transparency as a shield against any change).
So what’s left for french startups?
I understand a big well-funded startup being sued for copyright infringement (French Dailymotion for example), but all the websites I’m talking of here are small one-team startups.
Add to that a new ‘New economy’ state secretary, freshly nominated, and a special adviser to the French President, also freshly nominated… So far, we’ve got no declaration, nothing said about the situation, nothing to comment…
Dark ages are coming for French startups. Resistance is futile, I might just cross a border, and get rid of the problem.
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http://www.laquadrature.net/ un sujet
pour Eric Besson
http://www.laquadrature.net/
Cool. A popular initiative to try and resist a control freak central government… er… Deja vu, no? Do we need another Olivennes to learn anything?
I’m affraid Mulder migh be right, the truth is elsewhere, and might be Europe: check this out: http://mashable.com/2008/04/11/guy-bono-net-access-eu/
Let’s just get the hell out of here and move to Europe!
Emm.. Are you interested in my learning faith Oh, good joke) Why do birds fly south for the winter? Because it’s too far to walk.