Topic: Bitcoin in France: first legal decision directly related to Bitcoin? (Read 62946 times)

Bitcoin will continue to move despite rules. Keep an eye on and profit '

Bitcoin is becoming more and more legalized all over the world. Some countries even try to start its own national cryptocurrency. This is alternative way for them to get access to foreign financial markets.

Bitcoin will continue to move on despite of any rules. Keep an eye on it and profit. 

May I direct the attention back to those PDFs?   

Meh.
France is a stupid police state.
So are the US and the UK btw, but in a different way.

But don't worry, thanks to the power of the Internet, all these backward thinking patterns will be reprogrammed with time.

Then open their owin bank. Why get caught up in the courtroom-death-spiral.

Like sorority chicks.

Not like they haven't tried, but as soon as their bank turned them down, no other bank was willing to have them as customer as well.

Have you considered getting a new bank? Seems like you're trying to force a relationship with someone that's dumped you. Move on.

Actually this is a very bad thing for the people who will benefit most from BTCs, the developing markets. France still has a lot of power over some of the richest countries in Africa, and they continue to "lean" heavily on the natural resources of these nations.  Besides as France goes, so go the other weak "former" colonialists (Spain, Italy).  A strong example of how BTCs makes an effective and efficient reserve crytpo-currency in markets where the local currency has been completely blown out would be the most effective proof of BTCs utility and viability.

Maybe the thing to do would be to open up an account in one of the CFA Franc countries of Africa like the oil rich countries of Gabon or Equatorial Guinea.

Rough summary of the August 11 decision (found a crippled version in a pastebin but better than nothing - PDF still appreciated):

MACARAJA SAS (MSAS) operates the bank account for MtGox. Bank Credit Industriel et Commercial (CIC) intended to close MSAS' account and finally did so on July 15. MSAS was unable to find any new bank account with another bank after that.

MSAS asked Bank of France for another bank to go to and they referred them back to CIC.

CIC refused, stating that the account was closed because of doubts about a misuse of the account for operations that it believes are regulated. MSAS states it is regular trade business.

Court says CIC has to open an account for MSAS. Legality of MSAS doings should/could be investigated at a later point in time.


The August 26 decision as found in the pastebin is very hard to read due to low OCR quality. I'd summarize it as follows:

The bank wants to get rid of the account again. They roughly describe MSAS/MtGox business model and what Bitcoin is. They proceed with complaining that MSAS is acting like a payment service or a bank. (It seems that all that arguing was not fruitful and MSAS should be given back their bank account.)


The August 31 decision does not add anything to that:

CIC canceled MSAS account on Aug 23 and shut it down on Aug 27.

Court subsumes that the cancellation / shutting down of the account does not stem from any new reasons not already known and discussed.

Consequently, the court rules that the account is to reopen and has to be continued, albeit only for "basic services".

Bitcoin as is not touched as a subject.


EDIT: The "original" PDFs (see posting directly above), and especially that of the October 18 decision are still highly appreciated.

EDIT2: Added the August 31 decision.

Well, school French is a bit rusty, but I accept to post a summary for each of those decisions I get emailed - sounds like a very fair trade.

txcoin

care to summarize the decision?  never heard anything about that.

Impressive, that was fast - now I already have:

*  August 31 "Ordonnance de Référé"


But I am still missing:

* Original August 11, 2011 Municipal Court Decision:
   http://creperso.free.fr/CIC/Ordonnance_de_refere_du_11_aout_2011.pdf

* And the more lengthy August 26 Appeals Court decision:
   http://creperso.free.fr/CIC/Arret_appel_26_aout_2011.pdf

* the October 18 decision which led to the halt of the SEPA activity

Does anyone have some of the above docs?


Cheers
txcoin

EDIT: It is August 31 not 30

You've got mail.

Would someone send me the PDFs of the court decisions and appeals? The original links seem to be broken. I'd like to see how the French weaseled around defining / touching Bitcoin itself

@gmail.com please

Thank you very much
txcoin

Like anyone follows France anyway.

France is screwing themselves over through this regulation.  Any country that regulates bitcoin will be left behind.  Dont fight the inevitable. If you cant beat bitcoin, join bitcoin.

I lold

I think it's abandoned & topic clear, court ruled
- no account for mtgox in France, needs financial service license.
- no court decision on bitcoin nature (is it money?)
case closed