If you are deciding to migrate to France to download pirated content, you can start changing your plans now.
If you are caught downloading, here is the rules:
1. The first time you are caught downloading copyrighted material, you will be sent an e-mail.
2. The second time, you are sent an official letter letting you know that this is your last warning.
3. The third time, your internet access is cut off for a year.
In an attempt to reduce piracy, the French have passed a new law requiring Internet service providers to cut off Internet access for repeat copyright infringers. Under the new ‘HADOPI’ legislation ISPs have to warn their customers twice that they are accused of infringing copyright. If both warnings are ignored, Internet access for that subscriber will be terminated for up to a year – and they’ll have to keep paying their ISP bill throughout this period too.
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. For example, websites can be blocked without having to provide hard evidence that they are engaging in illegal activities. The Pirate Bay has already been mentioned as one of the sites that could be easily taken out under the new law.
This afternoon the National Assembly passed HADOPI with 296 votes in favor and 233 against. The law was already supposed to have passed in early April, but at the time the Socialists block turned up unannounced, outnumbering the deputies from the UMP. The law will now be voted on in the Senate tomorrow after which it will be final.
As with most technical issues, the people who had to decide on the law have no clue about file-sharing at all. As we reported earlier, many of the politicians don’t know what BitTorrent is, or how it works. Yet they get to decide the fate of millions of Internet users.
HADOPI goes against the Telecoms Package of the European Parliament which aims to protect European citizens against such disproportionate legislation because it violates the rights and freedoms of Internet users. A few days ago HADOPI already claimed its first victim, the head of web innovation at the largest TV network in France who criticized the law in a letter to his MP. More victims are likely to follow in the months to come.
Update (May 13): The Senate passed the new law with 189 votes in favor and 14 against.
“While the [three-strikes bill] was rejected last week by 88 percent of European deputies, the French National Assembly has bent itself to the will of the president by adopting the Creation and Internet law”.
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He’s already being called “le premier martyr d’Hadopi.” Who is he? He’s a 31-year old Frenchman named Jérôme Bourreau-Guggenheim, and he works in the Internet innovation division of French TV broadcaster TF1. After sending a private note to his MP opposing the proposed “three strikes” law currently being debated in France, Bourreau-Guggenheim found himself hauled into his boss’ office. He was shown a copy of his e-mail, and he was fired for “strategic differences” with his employer.
The case is all over French newspapers today. Libération reported the story, which began back on February 19th when Bourreau-Guggenheim decided to write his MP. He did so from a private e-mail address and told Françoise de Panafieu (a member of the majority UMP party) what he thought of the “Création et Internet” bill.
The bill is sometimes referred to as “HADOPI,” after the French acronym for the new administrative authority that the bill would create; HADOPI would be responsible for overseeing warnings and Internet disconnections for those who repeatedly infringe online copyrights. The idea is so unpopular that 88 percent of the European Parliament this week voted to ban the practice unless overseen by a judge.
After Bourreau-Guggenheim expressed his opposition to the law, he thought no more about it until he was called into his boss’ office and shown… an exact copy of his e-mail to Panafieu. According to his boss, the e-mail had been provided by the Ministry of Culture, where Minister Christine Albanel is the French government’s key backer of the Création et Internet law (and also a UMP member).
Thanks to ArsTechnica and TorrentFreak
Jeremy
