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France to Ban Illegal Downloaders From the Internet

by Evan Shamoon on June 20, 2008 at 11:04 AM



France, a country perhaps best known for its unfailing support of the arts, has recently put itself at the forefront of combating digital piracy. "There is no reason that the Internet should be a lawless zone," President Nicolas Sarkozy told his cabinet as it sanctioned his new plan, by which anyone who engages in the illegal downloading of music, TV, or films will actually be barred from broadband access.

The plan will begin next January, and will be based on a "three strikes" policy; essentially, ISPs will be required to cut off access for up to a year for third-time offenders caught sharing illicit content. The law will all be enforced by a new nearly $30 million-a-year state agency, to be called Hadopi (high authority for copyright protection and dissemination of works on the Internet, translated into your filthy American English).

Sarkozy has become very interested in artists' rights every since getting hitched to model and folk singer Carla Bruni. Opposition, however, has come frmo the state data protection agency, consumer and civil liberties groups, and the European Parliament. Big Web companies including Google refused to sign up to the 40-member industry accord last November.

Mocking the scheme, French newspaper Libération warned families that they could be stripped of their Internet access and broadband telephone and television if a neighbor's teenager uses their wireless router to load his iPod with music (not a bad idea if said teen has recently been "banned" from the Internet for downloading music illegally). And what's to stop the same teen from just going down to the local Internet cafe and downloading content illegally while there? While we're all about figuring out this whole "new media distribution" dilemma, we're going to have to agree with Libération: This doesn't seem like a very effective way forward. [Source: Times Online]

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Tags: downloading, france, law, piracy

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