French 3 strikes law struck down. Again.
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- There will be much gnashing of teeth LaLa Land, today.
It’s staggering that governments are allowing themselves to be dictated to by a group of venal corporations run by a small band of CEOs who answer only to their shareholders, said p2pnet last month.
We were referring to efforts by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and the major movie studios and record labels to ram through the entertainment industry’s French version of the ‘graduated response‘ under which French ISPs would have become corporate copyright cops, and users identified as file sharers would ultimately have lost their online connections.
But this is the 21st digital century, we said, going on »»»
The cartels would have gotten away with it before the Net gave people around the world a united voice which, for the first time in history, is powerful enough to force politicians and captains of industry to pay serious attention.
Now two questions remain: When will French citizens let Sarkozy know he answers to them, not Hollywood or Big Music? How will they do it?
Both questions have been answered, and Sarkozy and the major movie studios and record labels have suffered a(nother) stinging defeat which is sure to reverberate not only in Europe, but also in North America.
France’s highest legal authority has, “struck down a key provision of a contested Internet piracy law that set up a new state agency to cut off offenders from the web,” says Agence France-Presse, going on »»»
The ruling is an embarrassing setback for President Nicolas Sarkozy, who championed the adoption of the tough new legislation last month.
The Constitutional Council ruled that “free access to public communication services on line” was a human right, and that only a judge should have the power to strike an individual from the Internet.
Council members, who include former French presidents, based their ruling on the preamble to the French constitution, which lists freedom of communication and expression as a basic human right.
Opponents said alleged offenders had insufficient recourse to, “challenge accusations and argued that web innovations would make it possible for downloaders to avoid detection,” says AFP, adding:
“The law approved the set-up of of a state agency known by the acronym Hadopi to track and punish illegal downloaders, serving as a go-between for content providers and Internet service providers.”
Will this latest entertainment kartell defeat adversely impact a move by Hollywood and the Big $ record labels to have a Hadopi-style board set up in Denmark? – one wonders.
Definitely stay tuned.
p2pnet – King Nicolas Sarkozy of France, May 23, 2009
graduated response – RIAA ISP copyright cops: epic fail, June 4, 2009
Agence France-Presse – Top French legal body blocks Internet piracy law, June 10, 2009
Hadopi-style board – Denmark ‘pirate review board’, June 10, 2009
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June 10th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
“Now two questions remain: When will French citizens let Sarkozy know he answers to them, not Hollywood or Big Music? How will they do it?”
Simple. By draging the guillotines from the museum back into the street. This is the only way.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Let them eat cake.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
German Publishers Demand Govt Action On Piracy
Didn’t take them long to start demanding other countries fall in, did it? Ink isn’t dry on the failed proposal and already they are trying to make hay to force other countries to do the same. Looks like this time, they got way ahead of their game. Too far ahead.
It would be nice to see a little common sense come from Germany for a change on the copyright issues.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:38 pm
I’d say that the Pirate Party’s success in Sweden has thrown the fear of the Mark into them. Perhaps they see the handwriting on the wall?
June 11th, 2009 at 5:51 am
What happened was quite easy to guess.
The 3 strikes law, against illegal downloading, was made so that an administrative entity could suspend your internet connection. Well what the Conseil Constitutionnel statued, is that, since Internet is now part of the different available media that permits oneself to express his opignon, it could not be cut without a jugement stating so. This decision make it almost impossible for the governement to achieve its objectives (wich was 1000 cut/day) and make it almost impossible to apply (since french justice is already struggling).
Second part is that, when you where Suspected of illegally downloading, you had to proove your innocence. This was totally absurd since, in french law, everybody is presumed innocent. With the difficulty of making an IP a proof (some judgement already flushed it as a proof), it’s almost the entirelaw that just died.
That’s quite a great news actually (with amazon opening its mp3 store in France)
June 11th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
If you say something I don’t agree with, should I be given the right to cut out your tongue? While three strikes laws are an order of magnitude less brutal, the basic principal behind both are the same. Communicating via the internet is no different in this day and age than conversing over the telephone or in person. Therefore I feel The Constitutional Council came to the correct conclusion and am heartened to see that not everyone in a position of power has been blinded by greed. Constitutional rights and freedoms still mean something somewhere in the world; score another point for the good guys! News such as this also reminds us that we can never ever take those rights for granted. We must forever be vigilant in protecting them from enemies both foreign and domestic, of which there always seems to be an abundant supply. History has shown us time and again that when we fail to do so, the cost to get them back is usually in human lives. Sadly, history also has a nasty habit of repeating itself so I fear my words are likely for naught.