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Sarkozy's conservatives pass Three Strikes law in France
14 May 2009 | 15.39 Europe/London
With a concerted push from Nicolas Sarkozy's party, the net piracy bill has found its way onto the French statute books. After the lower house voted on Tuesday night, the Senate passed the Creation and Internet bill by 189 votes to 14. The three strikes law is known as the Hadopi law — the name of the new agency, the High Authority of Diffusion of the Art Works and Protection of Rights, which is the body in charge of clamping down on illegal filesharing.
Anyone found guilty of illegal downloading will receive, firstly, an email warning. The second transgression will be dealt with by letter and, if caught with their fingers in the illegal P2P jar, will be cut off for anything between two and 12 months. France is the second country to adopt the three strikes law, following on from New Zealand — although their legislators are currently reconsidering its implementation. Japan's ISPs have voluntarily agreed to police their users, although there is no law in place as yet.
While the music and film industries are applauding Hadopi, there is still a lot of opposition to the law in France. Both consumer groups and the country's socialist politicians have come out against. "Dangerous, useless, inefficient and very risky to us citizens," stated parliamentarian Patrick Bloche.
Guardian and EFF and BBC
Anyone found guilty of illegal downloading will receive, firstly, an email warning. The second transgression will be dealt with by letter and, if caught with their fingers in the illegal P2P jar, will be cut off for anything between two and 12 months. France is the second country to adopt the three strikes law, following on from New Zealand — although their legislators are currently reconsidering its implementation. Japan's ISPs have voluntarily agreed to police their users, although there is no law in place as yet.
While the music and film industries are applauding Hadopi, there is still a lot of opposition to the law in France. Both consumer groups and the country's socialist politicians have come out against. "Dangerous, useless, inefficient and very risky to us citizens," stated parliamentarian Patrick Bloche.
Guardian and EFF and BBC
[...] With SABIP estimating half of all Internet traffic in Blighty revolves around illegal file swaps, some have suggested this suggests the potential size of the downloads market rather than the scale of the problem. Among them is Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group - a UK organisation concerned about online rights and freedoms. “We need a compelling ‘all you can eat’ music service to reduce illicit file sharing,” he told the BBC (again assuming the file-sharers would ever buy anything in the first place). “But [we need] to remember that extreme enforcement measures would probably be very unfair and make people angry.” Take that, France. [...]
29 May 2009 | 19.51 Europe/London