Franse internetpiraten binnenkort offline gehaald (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - France's Constitutional Council has finally given the green light to the government's plans to cut off internet access to repeat illegal download offenders, widely viewed by both supporters and opponents as the most draconian legislation yet devised in the battle against copyright piracy.
Internet freedom advocates however warned that the judgement did not signal their defeat, but instead the start of a new "resistance" to the legislation.
The council on Thursday approved the so-called Hadopi legislation, so-called for the agency it creates that is charged with the task of overseeing the new anti-pirate regime, the Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Œuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet (Hadopi), or High Authority on Diffusion of Works of Art and the Protection of the Rights on the Internet.
The constitutional review court in June had struck down the law, saying that only a judge has the right to impose such penalties.
The government then tweaked the legislation so that now a coterie of judges will hand out the ‘sentences' - fines, cut-off or even prison for the worst offenders - instead of the Hadopi agency, which will still be in charge of orchestrating the ‘three strikes' system, in which alleged pirates will first be sent a warning email and then a letter in the post before having their internet access suspended.
With the change, ‘Hadopi 2', as the new bill is called in France, was approved by the council without objection.
Under the new rules, the offenders will however continue to have to pay for the internet service.
Moreover, even those who are not themselves engaged in such piracy can have their internet cut off if someone else in the household is doing the downloading, or they have not sufficiently secured their connection.
The members of the Hadopi agency are to be nominated in November and the the first warning emails are expected to be sent "at the start of 2010," according to the government, with the first ruptures to internet access within another six months.
Some 50,000 connections could be cut in the first year of the regime, according to government documents.
The council's decision "allows the legislature to complete an innovative and educational piece of piracy prevention" said minister of culture, Frederic Mitterrand, cheering the ruling.
Internet freedom advocates however refused to accept they had lost the battle and vowed to continue the fight by other means.
"This sad day for democracy in France marks nevertheless the start of the resistance to this unjust law," warned La Quadrature du Net, the pressure group alliance of digital libertarians that has been organising campaigns against the law.