French Three Strikes farce returns
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- If you’re French and you believe because you put Nicolas Sarkozy into power, he’s there to serve your interests, better think again.
The corporate entertainment kartells are in charge — and they’ve just made a mockery of the famous French motto Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité.
“France`s project to fight illicit internet downloads, Hadopi 2 is back in the Senate,” says RapidTVNews.
“Adopted by the upper-house Senate, where Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP party holds a clear majority, the new bill will head to the National Assembly in the coming weeks for its definitive adoption,” says Agence France-Presse, continuing »»»
Championed by Sarkozy and singer-turned-first lady Carla Bruni, the original anti-piracy law was adopted in May after a stormy parliament battle, but was blocked the following month by France’s top legal authority.
The Constitutional Council objected to a key provision, which gave a new state agency, known by the acronym Hadopi, the power to shut down web access for up to a year for those who download music and films illegally.
Defended before the Senate by Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, the new bill shifts the final decision on cutting off web users from the state agency to the courts.
On the third strike, the agency would report offenders to a judge, who would hand down either an Internet ban, a fine of up to 300,000 euros (415,000 dollars) or a two-year jail sentence, under a fast-track ruling system. Account holders found guilty of “negligence” for allowing a third party to pirate music or films using their web connection, would risk a 1,500-euro fine and a month-long suspension.
But the Fat Lady still hasn’t sung.
“Left-wing senators, who had already voted against Hadopi 1, have decided to vote against Hadopi 2 also, stressing it was a ‘uselessly repressive’ project,” says RapidTVNews.
Said Mike Masnick in TechDirt on Monday
You’ve heard of speed dating, right? The system whereby single people meet other singles of the appropriate sex for a grand total of five minutes before moving on to someone else? It appears that Nicolas’ Sarkozy’s path to getting a “three strikes and you’re off the internet” law passed in France involves something similar. As you may recall, Sarkozy’s original law to force ISPs to kick file sharers off the internet for three accusations (not convictions) of copyright infringement was gutted as unconstitutional. The big concern was that a judge needed to be included in the process.
But, Sarkozy — who is married to a pop singer (bias?) — has insisted this is a matter that needs to be addressed.
Michael Scott alerts us to the news that a new proposal has been put forth in France, and to deal with the whole “judge must decide” issue, it creates a special “fast track” for such cases, whereby a judge would be given a grand total of five minutes to decide such cases.
Yes, you see, free society (which Sarkozy insists he’s defending) apparently doesn’t involve giving a judge ample time to consider whether or not it makes sense to completely cut someone off from the internet because they may have wanted to listen to a certain song without properly clearing the rights.
“Oh,” Mike adds, “did we mention that Sarkozy himself was recently caught violating copyrights? Would he have let a judge decide that case in just five minutes?”
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
RapidTVNews – Hadopi serial, season 2, July 8, 2009
Agence France-Presse – French Senate adopts rejigged Internet piracy bill, July 8, 2009
TechDirt – New French Three Strikes Law: Judges Will Get Five Minutes To Rule, July 6, 2009
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July 10th, 2009 at 12:02 am
If it is â5 minutes per caseâ, the opposition should try to cancel that in Constitutional Council again, and if that fails, sue France for violation of human rights because â5 minutes per caseâ is NOT enough for a fair trial and France is therefore denying everyone right for fair trial with this law.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:28 am
i think ppl should just give up on this. no sooner is it struck down than it comes back in a slightly form! we gonna be stuck with it sooner or later so why keep fighting it? just accept. take all the stress of fighting and finally losing away from yourselves.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
@stressout,
if someone continuously pressured you into taking a rogering, would you bend over? Assuming you’re male and a po_f was doing the asking.
You’re just what the gov & media mafia ordered, why not give em’ your soul while your at it.
My hat goes off to all those who have fought the hard battles and to the future ones too, to those that help shape the future for the better and prevent the world from being totally insane, who don’t think like stressout,.