French pirates beware as this past Tuesday the French National Assembly has once again passed one of the toughest laws against Internet piracy that the world has ever seen.
Under the new legislation, backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy (Who coincidently is a friend to some of the most powerful French media figures), French Internet users that illegally pirate content such as games, music and movies will be sent two warnings – first by email and then another via recorded delivery.
Following these warnings, the offender’s details will be passed to the courts and a judge who will now have the power to cut off Internet access and issue heavy fines or even prison sentences…
The law narrowly passed by 285 votes to 225. The ruling majority ‘UMP’ voted in favour of the new law but the Socialist party has already announced that they will appeal to the Constitutional Court once again.
The document will only be adopted definitely if a commission – made up of seven senators and seven deputies – can agree a joint version in the next few days.
For those that don’t know efforts to pass the bill have already been made, earlier this year in fact the bill was rejected in April, then adopted in May, then rejected again by the Constitutional Council in June because it would of allowed a single ‘agency’ to cut off Internet connections. The version voted on this Tuesday leaves the final decision to a Judge.
Socialist lawmaker Bruno Le Roux called the back-and-forth decisions an “endless soap opera” that has become “grotesque.”
“This project is totally unenforceable today,” Le Roux said echoing the concerns of some Internet experts.
Exact details on how this bill could possibly be enforced are quite shady but Internet users could be asked to install a special program which would allow users to be tracked down, monitored or identified including users who are suspected of illegal downloading but many technology experts say that such program is simply not ready to be rolled out.
Regardless of weather this bill passes or not, France are clearly showing an example to other European countries on what action should be taken against Internet piracy.
