France Passes Three-Strikes Law
from the oh-non dept
They've been talking about it for a while, now they've gone and done it: French legislators have passed a three-strikes file-sharing law. The plan is essentially the same as the one discussed before: a new government agency will be set up to to investigate file-sharing complaints made by copyright holders. If it believes there's been infringement, it will send out a first letter to the ISP account holder, warning them and recommending they make sure their WiFi is secure; a second offense within six months will generate a second letter, and if they're busted within a year of that notice, the agency can cut them off from the internet for anywhere from a month to a year. The agency has a lot of discretion on who to cut off and for how long, as apparently legislators didn't want to see businesses get cut off from the internet because of the actions of a few employees. That level of discretion is raising some eyebrows, while some speculate that cutting people off at all runs counter to the French constitution (just as the EU Parliament has said the laws violate civil and privacy laws).One interesting aspect of the law, though, is the so-called "Hallyday Clause", named after aging French rocker Johnny Hallyday. Hallyday is a very popular and successful French musician, and he moved to Switzerland in 2006 to escape high French taxes. The part of the three-strikes bill with his name on it says that downloading copyrighted material of people who live in tax havens, or otherwise don't "properly" pay their taxes to the French government, will attract a lesser punishment than downloading the material of artists who pay up. It's a slightly amusing "gotcha" idea, but when the actual monetary losses from illegal downloads are pretty minimal at best, it doesn't seem too likely to lure tax-dodging rock stars out of their havens and back into France.
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Filed Under: france, hallyday clause, three strikes
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This is what you get...
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Rail if you must, but I daresay that a "graduated response" looms on the horizon for freeloaders who choose to ignore the law.
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Re:
Being hijacked will not be an excuse in the eyes of the law.
So if someon hacks into my router and downloads a song, it's still my fault?? Those crazy French.
I have to admit on being ignorant to France's legal system, but shouldn't people be concerned that they can now be punished before they are found guilty of anything? I can't find anywhere a trial, or evidence, or even proof that the complaining person is the *actual* copyright holder-- it all seems very troubling and ripe with potential misuse.
I also read that the way it was passed was shady, too. (via slashdot)
All in all, I hope this comes back to haunt them. I know, I'm a bad person. Sue me.
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Guilty until proven innocent
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Hallyday Clause
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Take my car and won't
I guess no judge or your day in court to defend yourself in France?
Also seems like major issues for someone that is caught up in this but uses the Internet for their work. I can see a case where the kids in the house cause the trouble and the parents loose their ability to work.
What ever happened to prosecuting the crime (if that is what you want to call it) instead of all this mickey mouse stuff?
Freedom
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Tax Havens?
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May I recommend taking a look into visiting New Zealand? It's beautiful!
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WHY?!
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Bad Law
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Carlo, pointing at another posting on the site that points to a couple more blog style posts and opinion pieces doesn't make something a fact.
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Carlo stated it as fact, and it ain't.
BTW, for what it is worth, this site uses no follow tags, so all the "SPAM" links in the world won't change anything. Good try.
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Where's your proof that you are right? Some weird numbers from industry studies? Yeah, right!
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That's YOUR specialty, weird one.
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Worth Noting
Forget quarum or anything regarding what should be done. They convinced everybody that they would vote on it later, and when almost nobody was left, those remaining 16 people voted. That left 12 yea votes and 4 nay votes.
Talk about deceitfulness.
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Viva La WH!
Neither does screaming "THEIF! STEAL!" at someone infringing copyright make it a fact.
Nor does having a hypocritical double-standard whereby an individual downloading is a criminal (re:wolverine movie) but when its your industry butt-buddies, its "not a big deal" (re:Beatles song in a press release)
FUCK YOU WEIRD HAROLD.
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Re: Viva La WH!
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France's new 'law'
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Re: France's new 'law'
I'm not saying I agree with this law. I totally oppose it. And this "Hallyday clause" makes me wonder if foreign artists, that never payed taxes in france at all, will get any protection under this law at all.
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French Justice
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The Halliday clause is juste a smokescreen
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