p2pnet - rss feed: French ‘3 strikes’ anti-P2P law mired
p2pnet news | P2P:- With the entertainment cartels applauding loudly in the background, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Denis Olivennes, who runs France’s largest consumer electronics and media retail operation, last year together came up with a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy for anyone caught perpetrating so-called Net piracy.
Britain soon followed suit but now, with growing objections across Europe, collapsing support for Sarkozy’s administration at home, and still no “three strikes” law on any statute books, “the entertainment industry is getting a little antsy,” posts Danny O’Brien in the EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Deep Links, going on >>>
Last week, the French RIAA, le Syndicat national de l’édition phonographique (SNEP), announced a deadline to Sarkozy’s ministers. Hervé Rony, SNEP spokesman, said “it would not be acceptable” for the three strikes law to miss the French Parliament’s Summer schedule.
It looks like SNEP’s demands are not going to be met. Before the “Loi Olivennes” can even reach parliament, it has to be examined by the French Counseil d’Etat, the senior jurists that advise the French executive and acts as France’s supreme court.
They are not rushing their analysis. Just why might be gleaned from the leaked copy of the law sent to them for consideration (provided by Squaring the Net in French). Even after being moderated from earlier drafts, the document still describes a stunning shift in judicial and enforcement, both offline and on.
After explaining exactly why drastic measures are necessary (to “prevent the hemorrhaging of cultural works on the Internet”) 1 the document outlines a powerful new government body, the High Authority for the Distribution of Works and the Protection of Rights on the Internet (La Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur Internet, or HADOPI).
As judge, jury, and executioner of “three strikes”, HADOPI is born with wide-ranging powers over all French Internet users. The High Authority acts on reports of suspected infringement from rightsholder groups. Based on those accusations alone it can contact, warn, suspend and finally deny Net service to any French citizen. The High Authority has the right to obtain and peruse a year’s worth of personal records from ISPs in the pursuit of their targets. They can order ISPs to include new filtering systems into their infrastructure, and can fine them up to 5,000 euros if they provide Net service to anyone on placed on the Authority’s national Internet blacklist.
French Net users do not only have a new Authority sitting in judgment over them: the Loi Olivennes also requires them to police their own networks for the benefit of rightsholders. They will have an obligation to oversee their own network for Internet copyright infringement, and are liable for any infractions, even by strangers. Your only defense against the HADOPI guillotine is if you install on your home network one of their recommended “security devices”. It’s unclear what these may be: at minimum, it will be software to lock down your network shared drives, and ensure you never open your Wi-Fi again. The stage is set, though, for the government to recommend for home use the fingerprinting and monitoring systems that the copyright cartels are trying to push on YouTube and the phone companies. (And if you think such spyware at home is unlikely, remember that NBC recently pressured Microsoft to include such filters on your MP3 player).
If HADOPI’s powers to cut users off, create government-required spyware at the ISP and home level, and pry into the private records of ordinary French citizens at the behest of a few music and movie companies seems draconian, you’re not alone. This week, the French Internet trade group ASIC, which includes AOL, Yahoo, Google, Wikipedia, MySpace and others, wrote to the Ministry to complain about the disproportionality and injustices in the HADOPI procedure.
The beleagured Sarkozy administration (the President’s support is now at 28%) is facing a great deal of criticism on many policy fronts, is looking at a packed legislative agenda for the Summer, and needs to divert executive resources for the upcoming French presidency of the EU. The last thing it wants to do now is to attempt to rush through a proposal that is deeply unpopular with both the public and business for the benefit of a single industry.
Three strikes is still on the agenda, both at the Élysée and in the recording industry’s talking points. But its continuing rough ride through the French political system should stand as a warning to any other nation seriously considering it as a policy.
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.Stumble It!
soon followed suit - Britain to turn ISPs into corporate copyright cops, February 12, 2008
Deep Links - The Struggles of France’s Three Strikes Law, May 9, 2008
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May 10th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
The French government has traditionally been placable to external pressures, and the entertainment cartels are no different. I’m sure their zealous acquiescence will win favour among France’s citizens (NOT!). Could this be the shortest term in office for a political party? If they continue so, then it’s likely.
Similarly, Gordon Brown’s reclassification of cannabis has been received with equally distasteful reproach. I give him 3-6 months before he is ostracised entirely from the labour party.
Don’t governments ever learn? you work for the country and it’s citizens not special interest groups; they seem to forget this sometimes…
May 10th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
It’s like letting the govt be overrun by the mafia, which it may already be, tho I wouldn’t know.
I thought the French legalized media file sharing anyway?
And we all play baseball do we? I’d like to tell you how I’d use my bat
May 15th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Wow! seems like the goverment work to appease media companies and by passing laws that work in favor of said media companies. The copyright infringment frenzy has push local goverments to placte RIAA cartel by passing laws to are designed to “enforce” “copyright protection” all in the interest of the owners at the expense of digital freedom.