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French Constitutional Council passes three-strikes
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 23 October 2009
The French Constitutional Council has approved the much previously reported Creation & Internet Law, which is the legislation that includes all the three-strikes nonsense. It means that the Higher Authority For The Distribution Of Works And The Protection of Copyright on the Internet (or Hadopi for short), which was established by the first stage of this legislation, could be sending out warning letters to suspected file-sharers by early next year.
As previously reported, the Constitutional Council rejected the first set of three-strike proposals because of concerns that giving the Hadopi, a government department not a court of law, the power to disconnect the net access of file-sharers was unconstitutional. The revised proposals being considered this time round will see the Hadopi refer persistent file-sharers who fail to heed warnings to a special judge who will be able to pass an ‘ordonnance pénale’ which will order the disconnection and/or payment of a fine.
The Council ruled those proposals were in line with the French constitution, though interestingly said it was for parliament to decide how exactly the system would work. It’s not clear if that necessitates more parliamentary approval of the specifics of the three-strike plans, or whether, having already got its Creation & Internet proposals through both houses of the French legislature, the French government can now get on with introducing the system without consulting the country’s legislative bodies.
As much previously reported, under the new system anyone suspected of file-sharing unlicensed content (probably large amounts) will get two warning letters from the Hadopi. If they continue to file-share, the aforementioned ‘ordonnance pénale’ may instruct the file-sharer’s internet service provider to disconnect their net connection. It remains to be seen how many of those orders are issued in reality. Net users who believe they have been falsely accused of copyright infringement can appeal at each stage.
A sort of three-strikes system is currently being considered over here, of course, though the UK version would result in bandwidth restrictions and net suspensions rather than all out disconnection. Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw also announced this week that any UK three-strikes system would also include a judicial stage, with a British equivalent of the ‘ordonnance pénale’ actually ordering net suspensions.
