Andre Yoskowitz
23 Sep 2009 0:40
Last week, France's lower house approved the extremely controversial "three-strikes" law for Internet pirates, giving authorities the power to disconnect multiple time offenders from the Internet completely.
Today, the Internet Piracy law was approved by the French parliament, however critics from the Socialist party immediately announced an appeal, just minutes after the decision.
The bill passed with a final vote of 258 to 131.
The French Culture Ministry, after the bill passed the lower house, said they expect about 1000 French Internet users to be kicked offline, every day. Besides being disconnected, pirates also face a fine as high as euro 300,000 (about $440,000 USD).
Unknowing parents whose kids use the family computer to download unauthorized content are also subject to the law, which will have the family's Internet cut off for a month along with a euro 3,750 fine.