shouting loudly

France to Downloaders: Stop Infringing or Lose Internet Access

Internet users in France who use their connections to violate copyright law may lose their connections under a new policy announced this week.

In a three-way deal between internet service providers, the French government, and copyright holders, those accused of infringement will receive warnings from their ISPs. If they are identified as continuing to download infringing files, they will be cut off. Reports are vague about the means by which specific users will be identified as regular infringers.

As CNet reports, “The deal also creates obligations for film and music companies, who pledge to make their works available online more quickly and to remove technical barriers such as those that make music tracks unreadable on certain platforms.” This promise to drop proprietary DRM is nice, but if it happens at all, I doubt it will be before users start losing access.

The parties negotiating the deal did not include any civil society groups who could speak on behalf of user-citizens, and unsurprisingly, those groups are angry at the outcome. CNet continues, “Consumer group UFC Que Choisir said in a statement that the deal was ‘very tough, potentially destructive of freedom, anti-economic and against digital history,’ arguing that tough antipiracy penalties are already in place.”

While I find this deal objectionable, I am curious to see how it plays out.