God bless the French [Sarcasm mode]
1st December
A little over a week ago we discussed the EU's forbidding of disconnecting users* from the Internet. But even after having passed with an 88% approval in the European Parliament, and passing through the European Commission**, it was all undone last week. The European Council, led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, removed the amendment*** before passing the Telecom package. This means that there's now nothing stopping France's controversial 'three strikes' law from going into effect. What hope is there for a 'parliament' where near-unanimous agreement can be completely undone so easily?"
17th December
(From our French Office)
Just thought I would remind everyone of what is coming to France in 2 weeks. As I’m sure many of you know that at the start of 2009 France will be launching their three-strike law, which is aimed at people illegally downloading movies, music or games for example.
It’s called the three-strike for the following reason:
1. Illegal downloaders will be sent an email warning them of their infraction
2. You will receive a letter via the post if you still continue
3. If you continue to illegally download copyright content, the internet service provider will cut off access to the internet for 1 year.
You can find out more about this new law just by going to google and of course searching “French internet law for 2009” for example.
Also a quick note if you have wifi on your router at home, which most people do. Make sure you have the security turned on to avoid unwanted people accessing your interwebs!
Something worth noting down (if it’s accurate), is that they don’t even need prove a damn thing for the strikes to start counting. According to a Norwegian article, all you need is to be accused for piracy. And after you’ve been accused 3 times, you’ll be DC’d for a year. No evidence required. Haven’t read through all this thoroughly though, so the article might be wrong.
* - http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/23/1952248&tid=95
** - http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=43957&id=f387e4d7-6312-4d6a-9fdf-dceb0e8dd572&page=1
*** - http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/European-Council-agrees-on-new-version-of-the-Telecom-Package--/112095