French Politicians Backing Away From Three Strikes As They Realize They Need To Get Re-elected At Some Point
from the political-realities dept
France was the first country to propose a "three strikes" law, pushed through carefully by President Sarkozy (whose wife is a famous singer). What was originally thought to have been a slamdunk proposal for Sarkozy's ruling party, turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected. First, everyone was surprised when France's National Assembly rejected Sarkozy's plan. However, a month or so later, it was narrowly approved. It hit another stumbling block when the French Constitutional Council ruled it unconstitutional, but Sarkozy tweaked it and got it passed again. It was supposed to go into effect at the beginning of this year, but hit yet another snag when there were concerns over whether or not it violated data privacy laws. Last month, that hurdle was finally cleared.So now there's nothing standing between Hadopi and kicking people off the internet, right? In fact, reports suggested the Hadopia agency (which, amusingly was caught using an infringing font for its logo -- strike one!) was ready to start sending out 50,000 notices a day.
But wait... As a bunch of you are sending in, apparently a bunch of members of Sarkozy's party are now rethinking their support of Hadopi, noting that the plan might not be very effective, and they are worrying that it may harm just casual file sharers. In fact, a leading member of the party, Jean-Francois Cope admits he's "evolved" on the issue, and notes that the law has a "clumsy choice" in terms of the wording.
Reading between the lines a bit here, it appears that these politicians have been hearing from upset constituents about Hadopi, and are starting to realize that they're going to need to get re-elected at some point. That's the kind of thing that can "evolve" your thinking on concepts like kicking your constituents off the internet, because they wanted to hear some music.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: france, hadopi, politicians, three strikes
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Happy Bastille Day!
¡Viva la France!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
EU Human rights rules ....
I wonder if the politicians in the US are going to look at the french before they sign ACTA into law.
Also the law violates the "CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION" and multiple other EU documents.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I have to TAM you on this one Mike ...
you state that the politicians are running scared because constituents are complaining about hadopi and three strikes. no where do you provide proof of this. it is an assumption.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
There are times when the old electoral phrase "throw the bastards out" is quite literal particularly when some lunacy like a three strikes law also has other things in the background to make the masses angry.
The ballot box can be a truly wonderful thing!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Happy Bastille Day!
Muchas Gracias. Maintenant, en Francais - "Vivre la France!"
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
That is true. I did hear it from the submitter of that story (who wanted to be anonymous, but who is from France, and explained it in the context of being there). The indication from them was that this was definitely part of the pre-election planning.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
In Mexico
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
Didn't your parents teach you that you shouldn't troll anonymously?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
you state that the politicians are running scared because constituents are complaining about hadopi and three strikes. no where do you provide proof of this. it is an assumption."
You forgot to add "and you call yourself a reporter?" and "selective reporting" somewhere.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
Nope. The explanation of an individual plus my own knowledge and experiences of the situation, leads me to make an educated hypothesis, which is clearly stated as such.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re:
Its not the opinion of a single person, its a concensus of alot of people. The French Pirate Party is likely to gain a seat in the next election because of this law. There is an anti-Hadopi law that has also been submitted to the french government, Amendment 324, which would ban all methods of filtering. I was just calling him out on the fact that he hadn't provided any links.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
You seem to give your opinion on things you have no personal experience with, and don't seem to have an issue doing so.
Pot meet kettle?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
We have this wonderful thing called the internet. You should check it out. It lets people in other countries communicate across national boundaries.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Or maybe he does and he's just trying to promote his agenda by smearing opponents. Have you noticed how the lower case coward always tries to discredit anyone and everyone who opposes him?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Happy Bastille Day!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
He never picks on me for some reason.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Hephaestus
you state that the politicians are running scared because constituents are complaining about hadopi and three strikes. no where do you provide proof of this. it is an assumption.
Well, I live in France, been actively involved against the Hadopi law, and I can confirm Mike's analysis. If you understand french, you can check this post who clearly show how things have evolved these last months. Today, people like me are invited to share their views at the french national assembly and can fight lobbie inside the system in a very efficient way, with full support of the same politicians who where in favor of Hadopi a year ago
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Um. No, actually I have spent a fair bit of time in France, including with folks in the music industry. But, why let facts get in the way.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Memo
As long as lawmakers are in any way beholden or even dependent on non-corporate entities such as "citizens", our civilization will be in danger."
-from internal RIAA discussions
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Memo
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sarkozy already repeat infringer
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
- A Politician?
- A musician?
- A movie producer?
- An actor?
- A programmer?
Because you seem to have strong opinions on related topics. According to your logic, if you aren't any of those, you can't comment on these topics.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Memo
So do corporations, and corporations who support lengthy copyright extensions. Which isn't causing any problems whatsoever!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Ha! Very funny.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
We have this wonderful thing called the internet. You should check it out. It lets people in other countries communicate across national boundaries."
non-answer, effectively being a dick. you wonder why people are a dick back to you, well, now you know.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
its all about physics
every action has an equal and opposite reaction
they wanted to kill p2p
they get unelected
HAHA.....STUFF THAT IN YOUR MONEY BELTS
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
More than likely because sometimes its fun to feed the trolls... Big Ole GRIN
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
I thought about adding something along those lines. But Mike isn't a reporter, he runs a blog that is consistantly selective in its presentation of the stories and issues he has an interest in (ie: he has an opinion about stuff he follows and doesn't change his opinion). Plus the final paragraph is consistantly the zinger, where he pulls it all together, editorializes, then pokes fun at the people or event.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Hephaestus
I already know how things are evolving around the world for the laws that have been implemented to combat infringement. France (see above comment), Sweden, Spain, South Korea, the UK, etc, none of what is going on bodes well for ACTA, the DEA, or any of these laws. Italy is the only EU country this might work for in the short term due to political corruption and a media mogul. In the end the existing laws and the ones being planned for Italy will fail because of the EU courts.
Here are some suggestions of what to push for.
1) Internet access as a right that can not be removed with out a judicial order.
2) No ISP monitoring of the content, ports used, sites visited, or software used by any internet user while accessing the internet without a court order. (this serves a dual purpose, it is pure net neutrality, and it stops 3 strikes in its tracks) Think of this one as wire tap laws for the internet age.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Hephaestus
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: its all about physics
they wanted to kill p2p
they get unelected"
For once you actually made sense. ;)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]