France Strikes Out: Approves Cutting People Off The Internet
from the this-will-end-badly dept
It was quite a surprise when French politicians rejected a "three strikes" (or, as Bill Patry calls it: "the digital guillotine") law that would have ISPs disconnect file sharers from the internet on three accusations (not convictions). However, seeing as French president Nicolas Sarkozy was a huge supporter of this idea (despite the fact that he had no problems infringing copyrights himself), you knew it would come back. And, indeed, it's back. France's National Assembly has now approved a three strikes law by a vote of 296 to 233. It's expected that the upper house of the French Parliament will approve it tomorrow.Of course, there are significant questions about the legality of the law. Considering that the EU just said that such a three strikes policy is not allowed, you have to imagine that we haven't heard the last about whether or not this new law is considered legitimate.
Still, the thing that is most amusing about this is how supporters of such three strikes rules somehow seem to think that this will suddenly make people buy again. There's no evidence that this is true, whatsoever. But the main backer of this bill in France claims that this is:
"an important step toward preserving cultural diversity and the industries threatened by piracy."How? By kicking fans of the work offline? The most telling part of this statement is that it's about preserving the industries "threatened" by piracy, not the actual creators of content. That's because this is a law to protect legacy industries, not content creators.
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Filed Under: france, nicolas sarkozy, three strikes
Reader Comments
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Re: underground
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This law will backfire.
These accusation-based removals will anger innocent people, especially establishments who give it away to consumers as part of their business model.
Next up: The United States, provided we get past capping bandwidth, music taxes, increased costs of digital goods, consumer restriction of purchased goods, and industries trying to maintain control of an infinite market.
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Re: Wi-Fi cut for businesses ?
As it's the Internet access owner who's cut, even if not guilty, many might become "unwired"...
DJM
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Re: Re: Wi-Fi cut for businesses ?
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Entertainment
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Sarkozy's Internet access...
DJM
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Re:
So, it wont happen ... sad
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Hoping for failure
Regardless, the upcoming generations of voters will not stand for these kinds of anti-technology laws. It is infuriating to think about how little the French politicians who voted for the law understand about technology.
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A grand experiment
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Maybe disconnect France from the Internet?
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maybe not so bad
in their own parliament, this is so divisive that the rarest of events occured (link in french)
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2009/05/12/les-deputes-adoptent-la-loi-hadopi_ 1192219_651865.html#ens_id=1162478
"neither the majority nor the opposition voted in unison", which for french politics is not at all the normal course of events.
on a brighter note, it's not entirely a country of dunderheads (again in french):
http://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/2009/05/11/la-condamnation-de-dailymotion-pour-co ntrefacon-annulee-en-appel_1191336_0.html
the site dailymotion, having been sued and lost regarding the presence of user generated content (a.k.a. "unauthorized" uploading), saw it's conviction overturned by a court of appeals, echoing the language of safe harbors and adherence to takedown procedures we know here.
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Totally consistent
It will totally work, too. Once your ISP has cancelled your account there is absolutely no way you could ever access the internet. Another problem completely solved.
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Next Law
Amazing!!!!!!!!
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Three Strikes...
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Re: Three Strikes...
definitely an american thing. two legal systems: british/american is known as common law where the burden of proof lies with the accuser, and continental/napoleonic/louisiana/french law where the burden of proof lies with the accused.
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Re: Re: Three Strikes...
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Re: Three Strikes...
But all kidding aside, please feel free to connect here anytime. Just don't actually exchange any information, thank you.
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preserving cultural diversity
Btw, has anyone determined what became of the language known as the "original greek" of King James' fame? (Just wondering..., you know, that's all.)
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When will we learn
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You get kicked of the net but have to pay your bill
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