France Approves "Three-Strikes" Law on File-Sharing

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 9:59am.

Paris - France's Constitutional Court on Thursday approved the country's "three-strikes" law, which will sever the Internet connections of those found to have been repeatedly infringing copyrights on file-sharing networks, The New York Times reported. An earlier version of the law approved by France's Parliament was rejected by the court, because it did not include a judge's approval before a user's Internet connection was suspended.

"France is acting as a spearhead," David El Sayegh, director general of French music industry association Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique, told The Times.

"Piracy is not just a French problem, it is a global problem."

The first warning letters to file-swappers are expected to be sent early next year.

If a user fails to comply with a second warning, penalties include fines and the suspension of Internet access for an entire year.

http://snipurl.com/snwib (DMW previous coverage)

Published in DMW Daily, October 22, 2009

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Comments

Wow...

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on October 22, 2009 - 11:41pm.

... shows how disconnected politicians are from the citezens. I thought that was only in the western side of the world, but I guess the multinationals got in Sarkozy's pocket too. Next time I go to France, I'll drive around searching for an open wireless connection and download a whole new song library so some innocent person can get their internet disconnected. Great Job France