PayPal, Visa, MasterCard Prepare To Block Payments To Pirate Sites In France

An anonymous reader writes: The French government is deciding whether to allow PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and other payments processors the right to refrain from executing transactions to pirate sites if copyright holders (MPAA, RIAA, PSR for Music) file a complaint. All pirate sites will be added to a blacklist, controlled by copyright holders, and not by a French court. A similar unofficial agreement between copyright holders and payment processors is actively being enforced in countries like the U.S. and the U.K.

Comments

Common carriers

[Anonymous Coward]

Payment providers should be forced to operate like common carriers in Telecom. Either you process all payments, or you process none. Barring specific court orders of course.
If the Payment providers do not like this, they can opt for the alternative, where they take full responsibility for all payment activities, in which case they will be considered accomplishes for all crimes that involve money transfers via their services.

It is not that difficult.

Re:Common carriers

[Anonymous Coward]

Alleged drug dealers and mob bosses, but not convicted drug dealers and mob bosses. The rule of law is what separates a civil society from despotism.

Re:Common carriers

[Kjella]

So MasterCard should allow drug dealers and mob bosses to use their services?

Assuming the courts haven't seen any reason to seize the money, MasterCard shouldn't be able to decide who you're permitted to give money to or not. I should not have to justify my spending habits to the bank any more than I need to justify my food habits at the grocery store.

Re: Common carriers

[Anonymous Coward]

This right here is why attempts to go to a cashless society have to be fought with extreme vigor. We cannot allow the government or, even worse, private companies, to decide who can give money to who.

Goodbye Via and Paypal

[nospam007]

Welcome, Bitcoin.

If it wasn't already invented, now would be the time.

Complaint isn't enough

[AnotherBlackHat]

We've already seen the kind of harm that is caused by abuse of the DMCA via automated take down requests.

Blocking payment should at a minimum require a judge to sign off on it.

" if something is illegal "

[Anonymous Coward]

The key word being illegal. The copyright holders could get an injunction via the legal processes, with all their checks and balances and testimony under oath, and expert judiciary. Instead the proposal is to remove all the of legal process to determine if its 'illegal' and simply skip to the injunction on the word of the copyright lobby.

Oh boy

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

"...the right to refrain from executing transactions to pirate sites if copyright holders (MPAA, RIAA, PSR for Music) file a complaint."

Ha ha, no way this will be abused by the "copyright holders". I can't see anything that could go wrong here, no sir.

Except these "copyright holders" have been known to file utterly bogus complaints, claiming copyright over birds singing, public domain works, anything that has a sound in the background that might (or might not) vaguely resemble some sound in something they own (or claim to own).

But don't worry, Citizen, the uber-mega-international corporations have your best interests at heart, never fear! All hail the glorious mega-corporations! Remember, "corporations are people too"!