France to cut Web access for pirate users
Internet users in France who illegally download music or movies or illegally share those files could lose Web access under a new policy against online piracy.
The new policy is the latest way of attempting to stop illegal downloads and is part of a deal signed between the French government, music and file producers, and Internet service providers.
Under the deal, the French government will create a new anti-piracy body whose task is to warn web pirates and punish users (who frequently download music or films illegally) by suspending or terminating their Internet access accounts, while the file copyright owners and ISPs will monitor and identify offenders.
In exchange for the government support, the local music producers commit to offer their music in a DRM-free digital format, make their works available online more quickly and remove technical barriers on all types of players.
In a speech endorsing the deal, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said “We run the risk of witnessing a genuine destruction of culture,” PCMag writes.
“The Internet must not become a high-tech Far West, a lawless zone where outlaws can pillage works with abandon or, worse, trade in them in total impunity. And on whose backs? On artists’ backs,” he added.
However, the president warned that it would take time to see the results of the new system. Sarkozy said “If it works, we will carry on the same way. If it does not work well enough, we will take the measures to obtain results.”
John Kennedy, head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), said that “This is the single most important initiative to help win the war on online piracy that we have seen so far.”
While the international recording industry applauded the initiative, several French consumer groups and politicians are worried that the move might become too restrictive, anti-development, and anti-economic.
Denis Olivennes, president of the French media goods chain FNAC, told Le Monde newspaper that “The challenge is clear. If we let piracy keep developing, we threaten the cultural diversity of our country and of the world. But if we over-suppress, it is ineffective,” The Times writes.
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November 27th, 2007
If they have the technology to do this why not do the same for spammers?
Someone pays these swine, and the companies hope to gain from it!!!
November 28th, 2007
Of course they don’t have the technology to do this. You can’t tell if someone is carrying “stolen goods”. How about getting the highways department to report shoplifters too… that ought to work eh?