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Business Matters: Anger at French Surveillance Law

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06/05/2015

Anger at French Surveillance Law

BBC World Service - Business Matters, Anger at French Surveillance Law

France approves a new surveillance law, prompting anger from civil liberty groups

The French parliament approves a new far-reaching surveillance law, prompting anger from civil liberty groups. Plus, Skype's trademark battle to prove it is not the same as Sky.

The French parliament approves a new surveillance law and intelligence-gathering measures designed to catch potential extremists. But civil liberties groups are outraged and say politicians are using the aftermath of the murders at Charlie Hebdo to snoop unchecked on the lives of journalists, business figures and ordinary people. We hear from Agnes de Cornulier from campaign group La Quadrature du Net.

Microsoft loses its latest legal battle to register an EU trademark for Skype because, lawmakers say, the name and its cloud-like logo might mean people confuse it with the broadcaster Sky. "What a load of rubbish", says trademark expert Peter Groves, from CJ Jones Solicitors in London.

Mark Miller, from our US partner radio station Marketplace, tells us about the two big American companies changing the way they produce food for the mass market, and Tianjie Ma, of Greenpeace China joins us from Beijing to explain the efforts there to curb pollution in the air and in the soil.

And from Australia, a claim that visitors on working visas are being exploited by unscrupulous companies - our reporter Phil Mercer has the details. 

We have a special report from inside Britain's oldest cinema, which is flickering back to life after years of being mothballed, then turned into a lecture theatre. And, we uncover the unlikely connection between a Hollywood star and the Vietnamese-American domination of the nail-bar business.

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