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French Senate pass three-strikes for the second time
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 14 May 2009
As expected, the French Senate, the upper house of the French parliament, yesterday passed the slightly controversial ‘Creation And Internet’ legislation, meaning that only the French Constitutional Council can now stop it, and the three-strike provision contained within, from becoming law. As previously reported, the French Assembly, parliament’s lower house, which previously voted against the new copyright rules, passed it earlier this week. The aforementioned Council is expected to duly rubber stamp the proposals.
As reported yesterday, music companies the world over will now be watching France carefully. If the French can make the three-strike system – whereby persistent online copyright infringers could be disconnected from the internet – actually work, and if concerns raised by ISPs and consumer rights groups that such a system is filled with complications, and will result in innocent web users being cut off, don’t prove to be founded, then the case for introducing the so called “graduated response” system to combat piracy will be much stronger. Whether it will actually stop people from file sharing, and if so, how many disconnections there will have to be for the rules to actually become a deterrent, remains to be seen. As also previously reported, hardcore file-sharers are already employing technology that masks their infringing activity.
Needless to say, while ISPs and consumer rights groups predicted the new laws in France will be at best ineffective and at worst inequitable, the content industries welcomed the French government’s bold move in tackling the online piracy issue once and for all. Speaking for the global music industry, John Kennedy of the International Federation of The Phonographic Industry told reporters: “Creative industries everywhere, including music, film, TV and books, are facing a fundamental challenge from the way online piracy is eroding the ability of creators to get rewarded for their work. In France the government has understood better than any other country the crisis which is looming if firm action is not taken to address the problem. The new French law takes the right approach and sets an example to the rest of the world. It will introduce sensible, proportionate measures that will have a real impact on piracy while respecting ordinary legitimate internet users”.
