French Piracy Law ‘Stripped Down’

sarkozy

France was meant to be leading the way in the modern world, providing a lovely risk free testing ground for American copyright law. President Sarkozy and his Culture Minister Christine Albanel were so eager on passing through their new piracy law that they pushed if through parliament. This is despite major criticism being raised about not only the efficacy of the law but also problems ranging from privacy to human rights.

The law – known as HADOPI after its initials – would see persistent offenders having the net access cut completely. When it was announced it was the toughest law in the world relating to dealing with internet piracy. Now, it’s nothing more than a shell of its former self with the whole ‘disconnection’ part being taken out by the French Court, to be replaced with ‘strongly worded letters’.

The law was seen by the courts to be in breach of the French constitution and deemed that the internet was a basic human right, not a service that could be cut off by the whims of the entertainment industry. The court also suggest the law breached privacy by tracking the activity of people online and even violated the presumption of innocence as people accused of downloading had no rights to self defence.

The entertainment industry is quite upset but many smaller artists have praised the destruction of the law which they believed saw the government unfairly attacking their young consumer base.

The law is due to go ahead, although the French government haven’t really commented on exactly how or what will be enforced now that disconnections are out of the question.

Posted on June 16, 2009 | Filed Under Tech