Does the French President Sarkozy have a secret wish to self-destruct, or to lead France out of the European Community? Maybe this is the reason that the ludicrous 3 strikes idea keeps surfacing in France, see the coverage by TelecomTV below (and the other links).
But here is the real morsel (from The Register UK): "France's Ministry of Culture estimates that 1,000 people a day could be cut off from the internet under the bill. After first being sent a warning email and then a formal letter by Hadopi, those accused of illegal file- sharing for a third time could be disconnected for up to a year and face a €300,000 fine and jail time. Even those found guilty of "negligence" for allowing others (such as their children) to pirate online material risk a month-long internet suspension and a €1,500 fine..."
Maybe I am wrong but I can't imagine that these kinds of ideas are very popular with the voters, no matter what the business problems and the lack of innovation within the content industry are. Sure, politicians can have nice dinners with the music industry VIPs and smart lobbyists, and get VIP concert tickets, but this will not help them to get re-elected when the time comes.
But before that, action is required, because unfortunately the same debate is also raging in the UK. So if you live in London, or are visiting, I will be contributing a speech at an anti-3-strikes event called "Stop Lord Mandelson" on October 2, in London, at 7 pm, together with David Rowntree (Blur) and Ben Goldacre (Guardian / Bad Science), organized and moderated by Jim Killock (Open Rights Group UK). Please join me, and / or spread the word.The petition is here. My slide-show response to Hadopi / French-trois-strikes is here. My summary of Cory Doctorow's 2008 (!) comments on 3 strikes are here. On a more humorous note, check out these funny 'PiratesPrisons' videos.
"As expected, the French National Assembly has approved an amended version of the three-strikes legislation, designed to curb illegal file sharing, slung out earlier this year. When will they realise that none of this is going to work anyway" writes By Ian Scales. "The three-strikes issue now appears to have settled into a familiar left v. right split in France with the right-leaning majority UMP voting 'for' and the Socialist party against. Internet rights campaigners across Europe have been trying to keep the issue de -polarised since there is a substantial body of right-leaning libertarian politicians who are against the three-strikes approach but who may be lost if it all becomes too clearly identified with the left. In France at least, that doesn't appear to have worked..."
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Hi, the law is not yet decided, since some left wing representatives will make an appeal to the Constitutional Council. The first attempt to pass a 3-strikes-law was judged unconstitutional, and this is now the second attempt, where the majority tries to circumvent the previous problems (what do you think of a government which tries to circumvent the country's constitution ???)
Posted by: Francois | September 16, 2009 at 04:04 PM
I just realized the other day... It's really easy to cut just about every active person on the internet off.
Lily Allen was so concerned about people copying her music and enjoying it without paying her and then she copied a post from Techdirt and pasted it on her blog (without proper attribution initially).
This could be her first strike if there was such a law! Haha.
Posted by: Bas | September 22, 2009 at 11:49 PM