CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘France’ Category

HADOPI raises from the dead, still as flawed: “

After the groundbreaking decision1 from the Constitutional Council of France, last month against the three strikes law adopted in May, the Government is re-introducing a reworked version of the so-called ‘graduated response’. The inherent flaws of this system, aimed at fighting exchange of entertainment content through Internet, makes this new bill as dangerous as its predecessor.

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   (Via La Quadrature du Net -.)

   Posted in 3 Strikes out, France, Hadopi, P2P file sharing, Piracy | No Comments » | Read more..

France takes third swing at ‘three-strikes’ law: “

The human right to the interwebs

France’s controversial ‘three-strikes’ internet law is getting another do-over. Originally rejected by the country’s National Assembly, revised then declared unconstitutional, the anti-file sharer bill has yet again been revamped and passed for consideration by the French constitutional court.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Top French court rips heart out of Sarkozy internet law: “France’s highest court has inflicted an embarrassing blow to President Sarkozy by cutting the heart out of a law that was supposed to put France in the forefront of the fight against piracy on the internet.“

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

French Anti-Piracy Proposal Undermines E.U. Telecommunications OverhaulThe European Parliament on Wednesday rejected a long-planned revision of the Continent’s telecommunications laws because of a controversial provision to punish Internet pirates.

(Via NYT > Technology.)

Setback for Sarkozy as French parliament rejects controversial internet law: “President Sarkozy suffered an embarrassing setback in his efforts to curb
illegal downloading when an opposition ploy led Parliament to reject a
controversial new law that would cut off internet service to offenders.”

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)

French pass ‘three strikes’ file-sharing law: “In a decision that is likely to alarm file-sharers worldwide, an almost empty French National Assembly has finally voted through its ‘three strikes law’ designed to clamp down on file-sharing and illegal downloads.”

(Via OUT-LAW News.)

Post from: TorrentFreak

France to Block The Pirate Bay, Disconnect File-Sharers

In order to clamp down on piracy the French have passed a new law requiring Internet service providers to cut off Internet access for persistent offenders. Under the new legislation ISPs have to warn alleged copyright infringers twice, and if they they ignore these warnings their Internet access is terminated for up to a year.

One of the biggest problems with the new law is that copyright infringers will be identified only by an IP-address, which will undoubtedly lead to many false accusations. Those who want to prove their innocence have only one option, namely, to install a spyware application that will monitor their every move on the Internet and report it back to the authorities. Hardly practical.

The law goes much further than disconnecting alleged file-sharers though. In addition it is now possible to take ‘any action’ in order to put a halt to copyright infringement. Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, explicitly named The Pirate Bay as one of the sites that could be easily blocked under the new law.

Thus, without having to provide evidence that a website is engaging in illegal activities, it can still be blocked. Potentially this could mean that access to BitTorrent sites is disallowed in France, as well as access to sites like YouTube or perhaps even Google.

In summary, the new law introduces unlimited options for the copyright holders to go after sites and people that may or may not infringe copyright, without having to actually proove that the accused are guilty. To date, this is by far the most aggressive and unbalanced piece of copyright legislation that we’ve seen.

Even more so, only last week the European Parliament spoke out against such disproportionate legislation by adopting a report that aims to protect the rights and freedoms of Internet users and excludes ‘three strikes’ as a punitive sanction. Unfortunately, members of the French parliament completely ignored this.

What struck us most is that the people who get to decide on these issues have no clue about file-sharing at all. Many of them don’t know what BitTorrent is, or how it works. Yet, they decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of Internet users.

(Via TorrentFreak.)

French government accused of ‘Big Brother’ tactics over internet piracy

10 March, 2009

New law would punish illegal downloading by cutting off web access

The French government has been accused of ‘Big Brother tactics’ over a proposed anti-piracy law that aims to punish people who repeatedly illegally download music and films by cutting off their internet access for up to a year.

A bill is to be debated in parliament this week which could lead to a new surveillance agency to monitor internet users. With the help of internet service providers and tip-offs from music and film companies, those who illegally download music, films or video games would be identified. They would receive an email warning, followed by a letter, and if caught again would see their internet access cut off for up to a year.

The bill is a pet project of the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has taken advice from music and film industry leaders, who have warned that the country’s creative industries are on their knees as a result of illegal downloading. The president’s wife, the singer Carla Bruni, has long advocated a crackdown on piracy.

Christine Albanel, the culture minister, has said that France is ‘the world number one’ in illegal downloading. An estimated 1bn pirated files were shared in the country in 2006. In a recent poll, 57% of 18- 24-year-olds admitted they had made illegal downloads and one in three French internet users admitted to online piracy. Music accounts for the biggest share of illegal downloading, followed by films, video games and American TV series.

Although the senate has passed the bill, a row over civil liberties is expected as parliament debates the law this week.

Christian Paul, a Socialist MP leading opposition to the law, said it would create a precedent for ‘massive surveillance’ of the internet and society as a whole.

‘Criminalising a whole generation is a dead end,’ he added, warning that the law would not bring an extra euro to crisis-hit record companies, which instead needed to look at their business plan. Socialists argue that the law, which focuses on file sharing or download sites rather than new technologies of streaming, is inconsistent and already outdated.

The consumer group UFC-Que Choisir called the law a ‘judicial monstrosity’, warning it could cut off homes from the internet before they were given a chance to challenge the accusations. Several French blogs and websites, as well as groups on Second Life, have protested with black banners across their sites.

Frédéric Lefebvre, a spokesman for Sarkozy’s ruling centre-right UMP party, said the law was about defending the ‘French cultural exception’ and urgently protecting the nation’s creative industries. The music industry has seen its market plunge by 50% in the past five years.

The proposed French law will go further than those of Germany or Britain.

An EU report last year argued that cutting off internet use was the wrong way to combat piracy. But the US, Ireland and Italy have taken measures to work with internet service providers to fight illegal downloading by suspending web access.

(Via Latest news, sport, business, comment and reviews from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk.)

French court fines Google over trade marked keywords: “

Search giant says Non, appeals case

A French court has fined search engine giant Google €350,000 and said that its search advertising business has infringed on two companies’ trade marks.…

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(Via The Register – Public Sector.)

Post from: TorrentFreak

Italy to Follow French 3 Strikes Model for P2P

In 2003, Silvio Berlusconi’s government passed some of the most aggressive copyright laws in Europe, but ultimately the authorities didn’t give them the support demanded by the entertainment industries. Then in January 2007, Rome’s top criminal court announced that downloading films, music or software from the Internet should not be considered a crime if done for no profit, backing the likes of the IFPI and MPAA into a corner with fewer options.

Today, in 2009, the situation is moving quickly. In common with situations in many countries around the world, the entertainment industries have all but given up chasing down individual file-sharers, declaring that their new focus will be on ISPs, who they will pressure to clamp down on pirates on their behalf.

In October 2008 a technical roundtable got underway in Italy which promoted collaboration between the music, movie and ISPs. In basic terms, in part it was a discussion about the mechanics of implementing a ‘3 strikes’ or ‘graduated response’ to deal with piracy on P2P networks.

France has one of the toughest approaches to the ‘problem’ in Europe, so it will be of concern to many Italian citizens that their country appears to be taking the lead from Sarkozy’s vision of copyright enforcement.

According to a THR report, yesterday Italy’s Ministry of Culture signed an agreement with French officials to cooperate on anti-piracy issues. Furthermore, in an indication of how Italy sees its legislation progressing in the future, Minister of Culture Sandro Bondi said that Italian laws will ‘follow the French model’ in providing strict protection and controls for copyright works.

As we previously reported, plans for a ‘3 strikes’ regime had already been touted in Italy by the movie industry during meetings in Venice, with the MPAA’s President Robert Pisano stating: ‘Maybe the first couple of times they get a warning e-mail, then perhaps the speed on their account is reduced, and if they keep doing it then maybe their account is closed.’

With this announcement that Italy will follow the ‘French model’ and Sandro Bondi previously going on record saying that the fight against piracy is a priority for the government, it looks like the entertainment industries are getting closer to their aims, not just in Italy but in countries around Europe, and others across the world.