France Revokes Ability To Disconnect Convicted File-Sharers From the Internet

New submitter Nicolas Jondet writes "French courts will not be able to disconnect convicted file-sharers from the Internet anymore. On Tuesday, the French Culture minister issued a decree modifying the graduated response scheme and removing the disconnection penalty. 'The report says that instead of simply disconnecting users, those suspected of copyright could be fined if they did not reply to warnings, with a relatively low fine (€60) to begin, and the size of the fine would increase depending on the number of infractions. French anti-piracy will now their focus – instead of handing heavy punishments to individual users, the government is looking towards penalizing "commercial piracy" and "sites that profit from pirated material," according to an official spokesperson.'"

Comments

For once...

[Anonymous Coward]

France shows more sense than most governments!!

+5 for France on this one.
-2000000 if they surrender within 3 days to the RIAA/MPAA terrorists.

Re:For once...

[Anonymous Coward]

I find your comment entertaining since it calls an entire country as cowards thus continuing a meme my peers have celebrated with many laughings, HOHO! I want to join with their laughings to reinforce my sense of self worth by pretending I AM TEH USA, HAHA! I know nothings of history for that is for the fags.

Re:For once...

[Master Moose]

Actually,

I have been invited to less and less parties as I have begun to use Slahdot more and more. A study needs to be commissioned.

Re:For once...

[mindwhip]

Yeah but we do it in a fair, non discriminatory, way to every country and just to be doubly fair include the individual countries and regions within Great Britain in those stereotypes. The kilt wearing, strong accented Scot. The Welsh singing abilities. English bowler hat wearing, stiff upper lip gent. The welsh and/or northern Scots are also reported to be fond of sheep. Middle England is said to be full of Morris Dancing Faggots. London is full of pansy office workers to list just a few...

disclaimer: any views expressed in this post are not my own, rather samples of those that can easily be found on the internet, on TV, in newspapers or in comedy clubs
(Not Posting AC as I have Karma to burn and curious if this goes anywhere ;) )

Re:For once...

[Zemran]

The French are not cowards, they are the most aggressive hairdressers on the planet and the Germans are too busy making sure their deck chairs are in the right place to have time to decide who to have sex with. The Aussies ARE all criminals so that is not racist, it is fact as is the the fact that Italians are greasy (it is all that olive oil). You are wrong about the Dutch, they are stoned not stupid and it is the Welsh are busy shagging sheep (no one knows or cares what the Kiwis do.

Re:For once...

[Macgrrl]

I beg to differ, there are less Australians in prison as a percentage of our total population than there are Americans in prison relative to their total population. If any country was going to have the accusation of being full of criminals thrown at them, the good ole' USA will be near the top of the list.

While several of the early white settlements were penal colonies, the vast majority of people who have emigrated to Australia have done so for economic reasons - in search of a better life for themselves and their children.

Re:For once...

[mwvdlee]

So what you are saying is that if someone were to try put their erect cock in your anus, you would not stop it from happening, as demonstrated by your experience with the physical feeling of such an act?

Re:For once...

[LoRdTAW]

Are you sure anon was from the USA or is that your knee jerk reaction to people stereotyping the French? Anonymous Coward indeed.

Do they mean...?

[mark-t]

Will they increase the fine, as they say, with the actual number of infractions? Or do they really mean they'll increase it with the number of allegations?

Dear Soulskill

[oldhack]

Can you write in English?

Re:Dear Soulskill

[Intrepid imaginaut]

Hey this is /. where we are pioneers not just in technology but also in spelling and grammar.

Re:Dear Soulskill

[GPLHost-Thomas]

I don't know if he can write in English, but what is for sure, is that he can't read French. The decree only removes disconnection from people that didn't secure their lines, as per http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do;jsessionid=FCB2F144F0CB66EDF871AB7AD7F8932D.tpdjo14v_1?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006069414&idArticle=LEGIARTI000022393991&dateTexte=29990101&categorieLien=cid though file-sharers still can be sentenced to be disconnected.

Re:Dear Soulskill

[GPLHost-Thomas]

And in fact: http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000027678782

If you define Pirated Material as Stolen Material

[JabrTheHut]

Then expect Disney's web site to be targeted, for a start. Actually, all the major movie studios' unoriginal and uninspiring copies of each other should make them targets of this law.

I'm Canadian

[ArcadeMan]

Fuck you RIAA and fuck you France, eh?

Re:If you define Pirated Material as Stolen Materi

[Samantha Wright]

I know you're just having fun, but (a) plagiarism of storyline has been a fundamental part of storytelling since prehistory, and (b) even if there were laws against being unoriginal, all of the source material is long out of copyright!

Thank the French Courts, not their government

[Camael]

The law the French government enacted to cut people off the internet, Hadopi, was basically unenforceable when the French Constitutional Court declared access to the Internet a basic human right in 2009.

The French judiciary has ridden to the rescue of the country's web users, striking down a controversial new law which would have allowed the state to cut off the internet connections of illegal filesharers for up to a year.

The ruling is a blow to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who had characterised the so-called "three strikes" law as a crucial weapon in the fight against online piracy. The Hadopi law, named after the government agency which was to police the new regime, was also used by many in the content industry as an example that could be followed in the UK.

But France's constitutional council ruled today that "free access" to online communications services is a human right and cannot be withheld without a judge's intervention. The council also ruled that the method of policing the web envisaged in the law breaches a citizen's right to privacy.

Re:Thank the French Courts, not their government

[Anonymous Coward]

Internet must be a basic human right, because in some countries in Europe (like the Netherlands) the Internet is the only way to file taxes (paper forms no longer exists for income and V.A.T). Do you think that the I.R.S. of each country would allow its citizens to be cut off from the only way to file taxes?

Re:Thank the French Courts, not their government

[xelah]

I think a rather better argument would be that the Internet is now so important for communication, for political activity, for social involvement and so on that denying people access to it is to deny rights of free association. Not to mention that it's a vast vast overreaction.

Re:Thank the French Courts, not their government

[Luckyo]

No, that would be "idealistic bullshit". Something media PR reps like to polish their missiles about for hours every day, and something that means jack shit in reality when money starts to talk.

The real argument is that of money generation and taxation and that one is indeed correct. Cutting people off internet hamstrings efforts to streamline service structures by making them online-only. As a result, cutting people off internet becomes vastly detrimental to both people and governing bodies.

Notably this applies even to non-free (by Western standards) countries.

Re:Thank the French Courts, not their government

[xelah]

No, it would be something that might actually have some relevance to the European Convention on Human Rights which the court has the power to decide the law would breach. This DOES include a freedom of association and to free expression. For some reason, no-one thought it worth including a right to be able to pay your taxes, it being one of the less popular rights.

Re:Thank the French Courts, not their government

[KingMotley]

That seems silly. You don't need an internet connection to your house to pay taxes. You can walk down to the nearest internet cafe, starbucks, McDonalds, or pay a tax service to file it for you. Inconvenient sure, but isn't that the point?

"commercial piracy"

[fustakrakich]

Um, all piracy is commercial, and almost always involves some kind of lethal weaponry. If no money changes hands and/or the transaction is consensual, then it ain't piracy. Copyright is piracy. It takes money, heavy weaponry, and coercion to make it work.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[Anonymous Coward]

What if being a professional writer or a musician has simply been overtaken by technology, i.e. how is a professional writer or a musician any different from any other profession which is made obsolete by technology? You can still write or compose music while being paid for other work (plenty of people do it), perhaps the era of writers and musicians drawing their full-time income from their works has now ended?

Re:"commercial piracy"

[artor3]

By that logic, all laws are "piracy", since they take money and weapons to enforce. When it comes down to it, it's impossible to have any laws if you don't ultimately have the threat of force to back them up. And if you have no laws, the strongest people will conquer the weak, set up kingdoms and empires, and make laws, just like they did in the beginning.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[fustakrakich]

The smoke that left your chimney, the light that shone out your window is no longer yours.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[fustakrakich]

The strongest do conquer the weak and continue to set up kingdoms and empires. They write the laws. What is your point?

Re:"commercial piracy"

[artor3]

That in modern society, it's done by voting, and while the current system may not be ideal, it beats the hell out of rampaging armies raping and enslaving and murdering everyone in their way.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[Lodlaiden]

...it beats the hell out of rampaging armies raping and enslaving and murdering everyone in their way.

Where do you think the term "French Benefits" came from.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[fustakrakich]

We don't need "rampaging armies raping and enslaving and murdering everyone in their way". We have the CIA (Al Qaeda) and KGB (or whatever they call themselves now) for that, and it's outsourced to the locals. Your 'modern society' is a crumbling facade. When the rulemakers refuse to live by the rules, then all bets are off.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[Anonymous Coward]

What have you ever published, that you think you deserve to deny professional writers and musicians a chance to make a decent living?

Deliberately or just through ignorance, you confuse copyright and droit d’auteur. Copyright was created by publishers, and mostly used by them.

But don't let being wrong cause you to reassess your world view.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[artor3]

Blah, blah, blah. Keep stamping your little feet. Humanity is far, far, far better off now than we were a thousand years ago, and we're not gonna let your kind drag us backwards. If you try, we'll just lock you away in a little concrete box and forget about you. Progress marches on!

Re:"commercial piracy"

[fustakrakich]

Humanity is far, far, far better off now than we were a thousand years ago...

Yes, I'm sure that your little part is much better than before. Nobody's trying to 'drag you backwards'. We're only going to keep trying to eliminate your privileged status, and despite your best efforts to obstruct us we are going to 'drag ourselves forwards', break out of your concrete boxes, and toss aside your emperor. Progress marches on, and will leave you behind.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[Darfeld]

Gaps! a law against being none original would be the end of story making. Have you read tvtropes lately? (or at all?) It's virtually impossible to make a story without using a trope already used dozen of times (and I'm being optimistic). It would be even worst than software patent.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[Macgrrl]

What I'd like to see - but don't think it likely - is that 'superstar' salaries in sports and entertainment come down to something a bit more reasonable making some of these properties less expensive to make, and may encourage publishers to take on new artists from time to time. It could potentially also have the effect of making it cheaper to consume these entertainment products, meaning people are more likely to consume them via legitimate means - assuming simple methods of sourcing and using said media.

While I'm spinning candyfloss unicorns, how about CEO and Board salaries coming down to something which is no more than 10 times that of the lowest paid worker at their organisation like is done in some Scandinavian countries.[1]

[1] No I don't have a citation for this, I remember hearing about it are some point in the past 20 years *waves hands vaguely in 'that' direction* but couldn't find a relevant link after a quick google search.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[Cenan]

Who ever promised writers that they absolutely must be able to make a living producing drivel for the masses? I think it would be a lot more productive for all of us, if rapper #400 went out and got a real job, and produced "music" on the side, maybe we could also have some cultural influences that does not revolve around how many chains you wear, but are actual commentary on society.

When just one of those idiots who deem themselves writer's these days, produce something of genuinely novel character, I'd be happy to shell out for it, but the sad fact is that most of what is produced is reiterations of centuries old plots. Produce stuff of value, then maybe we can talk about protecting your rights.

Also of note is pricing, why the hell does so much of an AAA title's budget get allotted to marketing? If their works are of such profound nature, maybe they'd be able to sell themselves. Why do we need yet another movie about alien invasions, or zombie apocalypses costing millions to make and more millions to market? If we cut all the marketing and handed the savings down to the consumer, in the form of cheaper tickets, maybe movie theaters wouldn't be in such dire straits. And just maybe we don't need yet another kids animation movie produced in head ache inducing 3D along with regular 2D, maybe if you're producing novel content, one copy is enough, yes?

Re:"commercial piracy"

[Cenan]

As an inhabitant of one of those countries in that direction, I can tell you that there is no hard limit on the salaries of CEOs, but even so they tend to significantly lower than their counterparts in other countries. I'm not quite sure of the reason for this, other than we have very strong unions here, that are not mafia fronts - and a general consensus that a company's profit isn't all made on the top floor. But it's all guesswork, and I'm sure someone can ferret out an example that will put all my reasoning to shame, but meh.

No Google link either, since I'm nobody search bitch, do your own digging :)

Re:"commercial piracy"

[cffrost]

Authoritarians are scum.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[pantaril]

What have you ever published, that you think you deserve to deny professional writers and musicians a chance to make a decent living? Don't tell me about sysadmin perl scripts.

I'm not denying creators anything, they are free to charge whatever price they like for their product. It's their fault (and bad legislation fault) that they charge much less for their products then they are worth and try to make up for it by restricting others to make copies of their work.

So you have it backwards. Pirates aren't restricting anyone. It's copyright and its proponents who are greatly restricting usefullness of modern communication technologies and create artifical barriers to accessing important information and culture.

Always remember that without copyright, almost all knowledge and culture could be available to anyone on the planet with connection to the internet.

(note that i'm not against some kind of government support for creators of IP property but such support must not interfere with the freedom to distribute (copies of) IP).

Re:"commercial piracy"

[jedidiah]

> What have you ever published, that you think you deserve to deny professional writers and musicians a chance to make a decent living? Don't tell me about sysadmin perl scripts.

No one else has the right to make a living in a particular manner.

Certainly no one else gets to sponge off of work they did 20 years ago.

Welcome to the reality the rest of us get to face.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[Your.Master]

False dichotomists are bums.

Re:"commercial piracy"

[cffrost]

False dichotomists are bums.

The dichotomy is not necessarily false: Example.

Re:I don't support illegal file sharing

[bjwest]

But I agree, governments should go after the guys that are making $$ from it (*cough* google, bing),...

So should we go after The Yellow Pages, and hold them accountable for shop lifters? Local white pages have everyones name and address as well. They're responsible for all home invasions.

I think slashdot submitter misunderstood the artic

[aepervius]

Or maybe *I* am misunderstanding it. 2013-596 says "Objet : infraction de négligence caractérisée ; abrogation de la peine complémentaire de suspension de l'accÃs à un service de communication au public en ligne" and " III de l'article R. 335-5 du code de la propriété intellectuelle. "

But 355-5 is "Article R335-5 Créé par Décret nÂ2010-695 du 25 juin 2010 - art. 1 I.-Constitue une négligence caractérisée, punie de l'amende prévue pour les contraventions de la cinquiÃme classe, le fait, sans motif légitime, pour la personne titulaire d'un accÃs à des services de communication au public en ligne, lorsque se trouvent réunies les conditions prévues au II :
1 Soit de ne pas avoir mis en place un moyen de sécurisation de cet accÃs ;
2 Soit d'avoir manqué de diligence dans la mise en Å"uvre de ce moyen. "

EMphasis mine.


In other word, it is not about file sharer, but rather people putting an open access not securized. Now instead of disconnecting them after a 3rd warning, they don't disconnect them but put fines. Which makes sense, but is not about file sharer


Agaiin maybe I am misreading and somebody can check :
The decret :
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do?cidTexte=JORFTEXT000027678782

The original decret
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCodeArticle.do;jsessionid=40CAF13F7CA80F3ECF351133E3DD58CF.tpdjo17v_2?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006069414&idArticle=LEGIARTI000022393991&dateTexte=29990101&categorieLien=cid

Re:"those suspected of copyright could be fined"

[Thanshin]

"those suspected of copyright could be fined"

Suspected could be fined?

  I guess it's time to overthrow this government and hang them.

Those suspected of sedition will be fined.

Re:I think slashdot submitter misunderstood the ar

[mwvdlee]

I see French law is already completely in control of the copyright maffia.

Re:I don't support illegal file sharing

[gl4ss]

I don't think the yellow pages list where you can listen to the records the listed record store is selling..

Thanks for the clarification

[aepervius]

I also learned that all decret are available on that web site ;). Nice to know for the future.

suspected of copyright

[devent]

The report says that instead of simply throwing people in jail those suspected of stealing could be fined if they did not reply to warnings, with a relatively low fine (€60) to begin, and the size of the fine would increase depending on the number of infractions. (change mine)

Ah brave new world. And some people are asking me why I have such strong opinion on copyright. Because to serve a few special interests we throw every common sense out the window, we criminalize whole demographics for a crime that have no impact on anything. We reward monopolies, stifle our culture and create legal frameworks that would be just brain-dead for any real property.

The new government agency is headed by a board of nine members, three appointed by the government, two by the legislative bodies, three by judicial bodies and one by the Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique (Superior Council of Artistic and Literary Property), a government council responsible to the French Ministry of Culture.[15] The agency is vested with the power to police Internet users.

So you have some people, 6 from the current legislative, 3 from the judicial to "police Internet users". You know, normally the power to "police" is given to the executive, the judicial are the courts and assume innocent before proven guilty and the legislative forging out the laws. This is usually called "Separation of powers".

To ensure that internet subscribers "screen their internet connections in order to prevent the exchange of copyrighted material without prior agreement from the copyright holders"

Ah ok. So I am suppose to know in advance that the web site have the copyrights to present me the content? How am I suppose to do that? How am I suppose to know if the work is already in public domains, is licensed under a free license like the Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org/who-uses-cc which about over 100,000,000 works are using the CC license or the site have some contract with the publisher?

(1) An email message is sent to the offending internet access subscriber, derived from the IP address involved in the claim. The email specifies the time of the claim but neither the object of the claim nor the identity of the claimant.

What email address are they using? My gmail address? My company address? My hotmail or yahoo address? There is no law that requires me to register an email address with the government.

I could go on. You can read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HADOPI_law
This bill stinks. It is a shame for a democratic country. It is a shame for Europe.

Fractured thoughts

[Porchroof]

"...those suspected of copyright could be fined..."

Is the idiot who wrote this suggesting that if I copyright something I could be fined?

Re:I don't support illegal file sharing

[bjwest]

Shoplifters don't go into stores to listen to music.

Re:Tell that to the Harry Potter fanfics

[GameboyRMH]

Fanfics? What about the canonical storyline? It would implode into a black hole.

Re:If you define Pirated Material as Stolen Materi

[Samantha Wright]

Copyright doesn't protect the storyline, only the details of the actual product. Take the recent film Oz, for example—they were unable to get the rights to the 1939 film from MGM, so despite the fact that the movie was probably prompted by the success of Wicked, there are no explicit references to it and some witches' names had to be changed; the only references to the 1939 film are homages like the use of black and white to denote the real world. The rest comes from the original books.

Similarly, if you've ever actually compared the Grimm versions of the fairy tales to the Disney ones, you'll find they generally feature significant plot and character differences. The Disney myths are legitimately new tellings, derived in the traditional manner from multiple sources and with additional innovations. Notice that there have been several versions of Robin Hood since Disney's.

Disney's mission to extend its copyright isn't about the stories, it's about guarding the look-and-feel of their products, and most importantly, Steamboat Willie, the first appearance of Mickey Mouse. What Disney really seeks to control by extending copyright is the distribution of merchandise with their characters' images on it, which is a huge cash cow for them. The design of Mickey, like Disney's other characters, is entirely their invention.

I'm not saying any of that is good or healthy for civilization, by the way, but the whole "Disney borrowed from the public domain yet refuses to give back" line of reasoning is based on inconsistent logic; they borrowed only the plot, not the whole product.

Re:What's the point?

[manu0601]

95% of all music, and movies that people might want to download are copyrighted by Americans. What is France's interest in protecting those filthy rich morons?

France signed Berne convention, it therefore has to enforce copyright. In return, it gets the same protection for stuff created by french.