French 'net piracy' bill passed
A controversial French bill which could disconnect people caught
downloading content illegally three times has been passed by the
National Assembly.
The legislation, backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy, was surprisingly
voted down by the Assembly last month.
The bill sets a tough global precedent in cracking down on internet
piracy, and is being closely watched by other governments as a potential
deterrent.
The global music industry has been calling for tougher anti-piracy laws.
The Creation and Internet bill was passed by a vote of 296 to 233 by the
lower house and will go before the Senate for final approval on
Wednesday.
Three strikes
The new legislation operates under a "three strikes" system. A new state
agency would first send illegal file-sharers a warning e-mail, then a
letter, and finally cut off their connection for a year if they were
caught a third time.
It has been backed by both the film and record industries.
But some consumer groups have warned that the wrong people might be
punished, should hackers hijack their computers' identity, and that the
scheme amounted to state surveillance.
The socialist parliamentarian Patrick Bloche said the bill was
"dangerous, useless, inefficient, and very risky for us citizens".
John Kennedy, chairman of the IFPI, which represents the global music
industry, has described the bill as "an effective and proportionate way
of tackling online copyright infringement and migrating users to the
wide variety of legal music services in France".
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.
Published: 2009/05/12 15:24:13 GMT
Net firms reject 'policing role'
By Darren WatersTechnology editor, BBC News website
Internet service providers (ISPs) have rejected calls for them to police
the net and cut off users who repeatedly file-share material unlawfully.
The umbrella group that represents ISPs said disconnecting users would
be a "disproportionate response".
A coalition of UK creative industries wants the online connections of
repeat offenders to be slowed or stopped.
The government has said it is looking at "penalties" for illegal file-
sharers in its Digital Britain report.
In a statement, the Internet Service Providers Association (Ispa) said
it disputed "calls from some elements of the creative industries for the
disconnection of users or technological measures as a method of dealing
with potential infringers of copyright online".
“ A graduated response which leads to pain for persistent piracy is the
only viable option ”
John Woodward, UK Film Council
It added: "Ispa members have consistently explained that significant
technological advances would be required if these measures are to reach
a standard where they would be admissible as evidence in court.
"ISPs and consumer groups consider disconnection of users to be a
disproportionate response, a view that was recently supported by the
European Parliament."
Force ISPs
The coalition of music, film and TV and publishers, as well as
entertainment trade unions, have issued a joint statement, in which it
calls on the government to force ISPs into taking action against file-
sharers.
“ Without question, piracy threatens jobs, but have the creative
industries been a bit loose with their maths and language in order to
strike an emotive point? ”
John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, said ISPs had to
"put on a deputy's badge".
"You can send out all the cease and desist e-mails in the world, but
ultimately if there isn't any sanction with some sort of threat of
disrupted broadband, then the threats are empty and will be ignored."
He added: "A graduated response which leads to pain for persistent
piracy is the only viable option."
However, Barbara Follett MP, minister for the creative industries, told
a conference of industry executives in London that the government was
favouring a system of warning letters to offenders with the threat of
legal action, rather than disconnection.
She said the government was a "little nervous" of taking steps that
would see users' connections slowed or stopped altogether.
Rights holders
While not ruling out any particular sanction, she said: "We are going to
build on the memorandum of understanding set up last year between
government, ISPs and rights holders.
“ A letter threatening another letter is simply not good enough ”
Simon Juden, Publishers Association
"We propose a requirement for ISPs to notify their customers that are
engaging in unlawful file-sharing and notify them in such a way that any
further action would have consequences.
"The consequences we propose are legal action; I know some people feel
that is not sufficient."
She said the detail of the types of legal action to be taken would be
included in next month's Digital Britain report.
She said that ministers were looking closely at events in France where
the government is trying to introduce a "three strikes and out" policy
for unlawful file-sharing.
Legal action
However, many in the creative industry are concerned that the onus to
take legal action against "pirates" will fall on them, and not on the
ISPs.
Simon Juden, chief executive of the Publishers' Association, said: "A
letter threatening another letter is simply not good enough."
Ispa has also called on the creative industries to simplify and improve
the licensing that is needed for firms to offer legal alternatives to
file-sharing unlawfully.
"Ispa is disappointed that the creative industries continue to advocate
legislation on enforcement without considering how the complicated
licensing processes that many stakeholders believe are at the root of
the problem can be reformed," the umbrella group said.
Mr Woodward agreed the film industry had to introduce radical new
business models if it were to succeed in the digital age and needed to
work with ISPs to become partners in distributing content.
"There needs to be a better relationship between content providers, ISPS
and consumers."
He said that ISPs might be willing to consider a graduated response to
tackling piracy if content providers were willing to pay distribution
fees to ISPs.
"ISPs would be incentivised to tackle piracy," he said.
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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.
Published: 2009/05/12 12:32:49 GMT
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