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Controversial plan finally sees legislative approval

France's presidential cabinet endorsed the controversial “three-strikes” plan late last week, which will disconnect French pirates from their broadband connections if caught downloading illegal material three times.

Set to take effect this January, French web surfers on their third strike will be kicked off their internet connection for a period of one year. For strikes one and two, surfers will receive written warnings via e-mail and registered mail.

A similar plan in the European Union was voted down last April, with many EU member countries citing concerns over civil liberties and human rights. France's plans continues unaffected however – The New York Times called the EU vote “symbolic” -- as member nations are generally permitted to govern themselves as they see fit.

The French content industry “hailed” the three-strikes law as a model for the European Union as a whole.

“This is the most important initiative to help win the war on online piracy that we have seen,” said IFPI executive John Kennedy.

“There is no reason that the internet should be a lawless zone,” said French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

A number of European news sources noted that Sarkozy seems to have taken a personal interest piracy after marrying Italian model and folk singer Carla Bruni.

“We run the risk of witnessing a genuine destruction of culture,” said Sarkozy at the proposal's introduction in November 2007, who called it a "decisive moment for the future of a civilized Internet."

Speaking last April, Kennedy said that governments generally decided that there is “no easy solution,” and that banning pirates from the internet serves to be the “most attractive” option available.

Enforcement will be handled by a newly-created administrative copyright-enforcement agency called “Hadopi,” which stands for the French version of “High authority for copyright protection and dissemination of works on the internet.” The firm will receive complaints from copyright owners and hand out punishments when necessary.

France's Culture Minister, Christine Albanel, said the law's purpose was to replace criminal sanctions with “dissuasion,” and notes that banning people from the Internet takes a “preventative and educational approach.”

The law faces stiff resistance from a wide variety of government and public interest groups, including France's own data protection agency. French newspaper Libération noted that families could lose their internet connection if their children – or neighbors' children – downloaded music via an unprotected wireless router.

The Times Online notes that the French entertainment industry will drop “existing copyright protection” -- presumably meaning that they will strip DRM – from media purchased in France, in order to facilitate its playback on a wide variety of devices.

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destroy culture, or destroy online privacy ??
By Silver2k7 on 6/24/2008 8:48:32 AM , Rating: 5
“We run the risk of witnessing a genuine destruction of culture,”

If say PirateX has a archive of culture on his/her computer, how does this destroy culture ?

If free files on the net, helps an unknown band reach lots of listeners who would have never came to know this band, does this destroy culture ?

If rare material such as demos, rehearsals, out of print records and live recordings gets spread to a broader audience, does this destroy culture ?

Creating laws to prevent corporations from changing with the times from a disc based media to an online sales model.. isnt this a bit strange of the lawmakers to agree to this ?




By arbitriter on 6/24/2008 9:00:53 AM , Rating: 1
Big "who cares?"

At what point do people decide that we dont care what the french say? Between them and the EU they are a part of, at what point do people get tired of it and just say who cares?

For a while now the EU in general, and France in particular have been acting as if they alone are fit to make decisions about things like file sharing, piracy, and monopolies/competative buissiness practice.

While there is no way I could hold companies like microsoft or Intel blameless, at what point do they simply decide that the EU and the French are just annoying, and cut them out? stop shipping products and things like security updates for windows and let them deal with outdated software and hardware. And when do ISP's just cut out any traffic from French nodes?


RE: destroy culture, or destroy online privacy ??
By Aloonatic on 6/24/08, Rating: 0
By arbitriter on 6/24/2008 10:03:01 AM , Rating: 1
While it is a good point that the US has launched investigations into MS and Intel, i think the difference is twofold:
1)Nobody else has levied such huge fines for the accusations they have maed against these companies, and
2)There are actualy US companies that could be hurt, like AMD and Sun, where there arent any in the EU.

Yes, it would be interesting to see a well developed continent try and compete, but first you have to find a well developed continent capable of it.

And i certainly think it would be interesting to see what happens if Intel and MS decided to pull all their products from the EU. No updates, no new chips, no computers sold with windows or intel chips, and no shipping them into the EU...

but i think this all diverges from the point, that being the fopishness of France and the EU. On the whole, i think the issue of digital rights and piracy has been sadly mishandled by everyone... EU, US, consumers, and record companies. But with all the inherent flaws everyone else is pointing out in this new plan, as well as the likelyhood of it actualy lasting, when do people the world over simply start ignoreing France and the EU?


By Aloonatic on 6/24/2008 10:32:26 AM , Rating: 5
As an Englishman, you'll find no argument from me about ignoring the French :D

I guess the fines and such would be large because the EU is a large place maybe? There's 500 Million of us over here apparently and the EU is a monster that is hell bent on getting larger :-s

I think many of the fines are about protecting consumers too, not industry. As you point out, there are no European chip makers and Software houses in competition. I guess they want to keep as much EU money in the EU as possible as well?

I can't say I'm a big fan of the EU myself, though the 20 day minimum holiday plus bank holidays is a good thing, so it's not all bad and if the corrupt EU members of parliament can line their pockets (the European parliament is amazingly corrupt place and an utter disgrace) with Intel and MS fines rather than my taxes then that's got to be good for me? :-s :)

If you were to cut out the EU, MS will be cutting out a lot of it's customers who actually pay for their products though, and be left with India, China, and Russia where piracy is rife :-s

AMD seem to have a lot of support over here though, I think they would be happy to keep on supplying?

At the end of the day, it's never going to happen.


RE: destroy culture, or destroy online privacy ??
By nosfe on 6/24/2008 11:18:10 AM , Rating: 2
right, who cares? because you're not french, right?
quote:
In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.


By Reclaimer77 on 6/24/2008 7:08:58 PM , Rating: 2
Nobody does care.

Pffft the French. They rolled over for Nazi Germany, but hey, when it comes to the uber culture destroying ability of file sharing, they draw the line !

Nice quote. Except for the fact that France has one of the most apathetic cultures on the planet.


By fic2 on 6/24/2008 6:07:34 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
For a while now the EU in general, and France in particular have been acting as if they alone are fit to make decisions about things like file sharing, piracy, and monopolies/competative buissiness practice.


I think it is the U.S. through the MPAA/RIAA that has been bullying all the other countries to stop file sharing, etc.


By Indianapolis on 6/24/2008 9:22:41 AM , Rating: 6
The French president is correct when he says “We run the risk of witnessing a genuine destruction of culture." Those of us who have studied history will recall that the fall of the Roman Empire was prompted primarily by piracy and copyright infringement.


RE: destroy culture, or destroy online privacy ??
By DASQ on 6/24/2008 10:25:04 AM , Rating: 5
The French Revolution did not start until after the first takedown notice.


By Ringold on 6/24/2008 4:43:21 PM , Rating: 2
To which Marie Antoinette, the biggest pirate of them all, said "Yarr! Let them eat cake!"

Then it was off with her head.


By xphile on 6/25/2008 12:11:16 AM , Rating: 2
Yes I remember the lessons well...

"Et tu Brute?" (So you copied my bloody CD collection as well? ... You bastard!)


RE: destroy culture, or destroy online privacy ??
By excelsium on 6/24/2008 9:49:09 AM , Rating: 2
Obviously the law makers in question are out of touch or are sleeping with the evil corporations.


By DM0407 on 6/24/2008 11:19:01 AM , Rating: 3
Keep smoking unfiltered Marlboro's at the age of 14 Frenchy!

Piracy is by far your biggest problem at the moment... By the way, 3 European tourist were just captured by ACTUAL pirates.


By killerroach on 6/24/2008 10:47:01 AM , Rating: 5
It's destroying their culture because they are, through piracy, getting easy access to American films and music rather than the Francophone stuff that the government subsidizes in the hopes of "promoting culture".


By JustTom on 6/24/2008 12:26:12 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Creating laws to prevent corporations from changing with the times from a disc based media to an online sales model.. isnt this a bit strange of the lawmakers to agree to this ?


Which law would that be? And does your online sales model include the corporations giving their product away for free?


The Human Rights Act...
By Aloonatic on 6/24/2008 8:45:03 AM , Rating: 5
What are the chances that the first person to be disconnected will take this to the European Court and prove that it is their human right to have a broadband, always on connection?

It is a silly plan anyway.

Firstly (if you equate piracy to shoplifting) then this is virtual house arrest surely? And something of an over reaction?

Secondly, all the people living at that address which is banned/black listed will be being punished too, which cannot be right and just either?

Thirdly, what happens when people move? Assuming that French ISPs are as useless and poorly run as UK ISPs, then there is going to be a lot of innocent people being caught in the cross fire.

Simple solution, blame your internet coffee maker and register a different e-mail address with the authorities or never check it, assuming the same rules apply for e-mail warnings as serving court papers?

All seems a little half baked to me.

If a crime is being committed (back to the shoplifting analogy) then there are already laws in place to deal with that sort of thing, so why aren't they being used?




RE: The Human Rights Act...
By afkrotch on 6/24/2008 9:02:37 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
If a crime is being committed (back to the shoplifting analogy) then there are already laws in place to deal with that sort of thing, so why aren't they being used?


Those laws are in place and are being used. The only thing that has changed is the punishment that is being placed onto the law breaker.


RE: The Human Rights Act...
By Martimus on 6/24/2008 10:10:57 AM , Rating: 2
I guess you are right. They should go to jail on the third strike to avoid punishing the other people in the house.