Andre Yoskowitz
22 Nov 2007 18:44
Thanks to a ground-breaking industry agreement backed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, internet users in France that download unauthorized music and movies could find their internet access cut off by the government.
The plan, which Sarkozy will talk about more in depth tomorrow, will be a three strikes you're out policy in which you lose internet access after the third strike. Repeat offenders will receive two warnings before being shut down. ISP's will be forced to give information to the proposed enforcement body on "high volume users", basically users that use large amounts of bandwidth per month.
The proposal has been written up by an independent review led by heads of the entertainment and retail industries. If it goes through, the music and film industries, internet service providers and the government are all likely to sign up.
There is however, a bright side to this deal. In exchange for the clamp down on unauthorized downloading, the French music industry has agreed to remove DRM from archive French material. The film industry also agreed to release DVDs quicker after its cinematic release, reducing the delay from 7½ months to 6 months.
Clear critics stand in the way of the new proposal however, including members of Sarkozy's parliament. UFC-Que Choisir, a consumer association, said the plans were "very harsh, potentially repressive, anti-economic and against the grain of the digital age".
Marc Le Fur and Alain Suguenot, two deputies from within Sarkozy's own party were both very against the proposal as well. The move "creates a truly exceptional jurisdiction for downloaders contravening the principle of equality before the law," Le Fur added.
More updates on the proposal as it moves towards a vote.
Source:
Euro2day