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

Posted by Soulskill on from the good-thing-they-went-to-all-that-effort-to-implement-it dept.

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.'"

4 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Re:For once... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  2. Do they mean...? by mark-t · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  3. If you define Pirated Material as Stolen Material by JabrTheHut · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Work like no one is watching. Dance like you've never been hurt. Make love like you don't need the money.
  4. Thank the French Courts, not their government by Camael · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.