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Overhype

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Dec 2nd 2005 2:52pm





Lost In Translation: The French Government Isn't Banning Open Source Software

from the babelfish-anyone dept

It's always interesting to see how news stories spread these days. These days, it seems like there's a competition to see which stories show up first on Digg or Slashdot, and then seeing how the stories live on after that. But what happens when both sites get the same story wrong? It looks like that happened today. Both Digg and Slashdot have headlines claiming that the French government is looking to ban free or open source software (and, yes, they are different things). Both are pointing to a press release that is poorly worded and difficult to understand. It seems likely that it may have something to do with translation issues between French and English, but as commenters on both Digg and Slashdot pointed out, looking through the source material, it looks like it's really a law banning circumvention of copy protection -- like a French version of the DMCA. It may also be trying to ban "open source" file sharing software that is used to infringe on copyrights. That may be worth complaining about, but it's a different issue. So, now, it will be interesting to see how this story spreads. Will other sites pick up on the story, or will they pick up on the fact that the story doesn't appear to be correct?

6 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
    identicon
    Thomas, Dec 2nd, 2005 @ 3:14pm

    No Subject Given

    I think the wrong story will show up on some tech sites like CNet, because these "reporters" are quite lazy and it often seems like postings to those sites don't even read the acutal articles before just reposting a slightly reworded version of the slashdot/digg article. However, I doubt anyone will pick up on the story of an error in the story, at least until slashdot or digg acknowledge the error themselves.

     

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  2.  
    identicon
    Ivory Bill, Dec 3rd, 2005 @ 12:59am

    Re: No Subject Given

    Do you think the reporters are lazy or merely incompetent?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Tarry Singh, Dec 3rd, 2005 @ 9:20am

    Re: No Subject Given

    Both!

     

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  4.  
    identicon
    Stoned4Life, Dec 3rd, 2005 @ 4:01pm

    Re: No Subject Given

    Or maybe they just don't speak french =P

     

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  5.  
    identicon
    Ray CHOW, Dec 4th, 2005 @ 10:31am

    Re: No Subject Given

    unfortunately some of those "journalists" just like to spread sensational stories that encourage to set francophile against anglophone

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Andrew Strasser, Dec 5th, 2005 @ 7:41am

    Re: No Subject Given

    how convienient.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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