RSSFrench Socialists mount constitutional challenge to 'three strikes' net access bill
By Angela Gunn | Published May 21, 2009, 8:15 PM
This week in As The HADOPI Turns: Socialists! Frenchmen suing France! An estimate of takedown numbers that'll make you glad Christine Albanel isn't doling our your online time! Plus, evidence that it really can get worse. Très worse.
When last we saw France's Création et Internet law, which gives ISPs there the power to block access to the Internet for anyone accused three times of illegal file-sharing, it was on its way to the Senate and onward to the desk of President Nicolas Sarkozy. On Tuesday, several Socialist members of the French Parliament took their case to the nation's Constitutional Council, raising eleven points of possible conflict with the country's laws.
Issues raised by the filing include the law's presumption of guilt, the lack of a means by which the accusations can be addressed by the accused, the lack of proportion between the punishment and the crime, and a provision (previously a topic of heated Assembly debate) forcing those who have had their access taken away to continue paying their ISPs for it. Response from the court is expected in about a month.
Meanwhile, United Press International reported earlier this week that French European Parliament member Guy Bono says that if the Constitutional Council doesn't address the problems, he'll take it to the EU. Speaking to the EU Observer, MP Bono said, "If a French constitutional judge does not react [to requests for action], I will ask the European Commission to request the European Court of Justice launch infringement proceedings against the French government for not respecting community law."
Other MPs raise other questions. One MP involved with the constitutional appeal, Martine Billard, says on her blog that it's her understanding that HADOPI also circumvents that whole equality-and-fraternity thing. According to testimony during one reading of the bill, one witness stated that some members of the professional classes -- doctors, lawyers, notaries, and so forth -- might not have their net access cut off so quickly as would accused people in other professions.
Christine Albanel, the minister of culture and driving force behind HADOPI, is alleged by Billard in the same post to have said that the goal of HADOPI was to "create fear" in the hearts of would-be downloaders. Elsewhere, Albanel has recently been quoted by the Associated Press as saying she expects a thousand net-access shutdowns per day when the system is under full steam.
Think it couldn't get worse? Don't be so sure. An article in Le Monde on Monday introduces the prospect of LOPPSI. LOPPSI is an acronym for a French phrase translating to "law and planning for the performance of Homeland Security."
LOPPSI essentially legalizes government use of spyware (cookies, trojans, keyloggers, etc.) by law enforcement with only light and occasional judicial review. The bill would also provide for a program called "Pericles" that would acquire, correlate and track data on individual citizens ranging from judicial records to information about the SIMMs in their mobile phones.
cst50:
Tks for writting the most stupid comment I've seen so far.Unbelievable.
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|you're welcome.
Oh and how does it feel coming from a country with the lowest GDP per capita in Western Europe? Of course, your military would be hard-pressed to even defeat an invasion of centipedes. so enjoy your wine while it lasts but don't count on the U.S. anymore for your exports or to save your a** because the american people are tired of it. Have a good day as there are not many left for Europe.
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|I would not expect the Eu to go after one of "their" own. The Eu much prefers to go after American companies- MS , Intel and now they have Cisco and Google in their sights. All this while ignoring the fact that EU countries, to one extent or another, subsidize European business (i.e. Airbus- originally a British, French and German venture now happens to be just be the Germans and French (countries with the two largest economies in the EU.). I am a free and fair trade advocate but the key word is fair. The time has come for us to take the same action say against Roche which now wholly owns Genentech and return it to American ownership.
This brings me to my final rant- After rescuing the Europeans for their 2nd round of stupidity in WW2 and the shedding of American blood to do that And the fact that a lot of the so-called loans under the Marshall plan were not paid back, the time has come to bring our troops home and let the EU spend more of their GDP on their own defense. Currently, they spend only an average of 2.3%. No wonder they can have money for a welfare state because they know we will again sacrifice American blood for their stupidity.
I believe in a strong defense but I also believe in the Powell Doctrine something Clinton-Bush-Obama evidently don't. The time has come for us to erect the same barriers to foreign goods that they erect on ours and the time has come to bring our troops home from the Quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan to S. Korea to the EU. So, screw the socialists. It's easy being a socialist when you think your back is covered by a capitalist country and you don't have to spend on defense.
As far as this law, the French need to spend more time on increasing their defense than on the silliness of this issue. but then the French like Jerry Lewis which says a lot.
Germany- 1.5%
France-2.4%
Sorry for the rant but I am tired of hearing from the Europeans how great it is especially when I go to Normandy and remember how many young Americans lives dies that day to free the sissy French who carved into the Nazis so their precious capitol wouldn't be bombed. One final note- The great socialist country of Norway is in a deep recession- so much for socialism but not to worry, the government will take care of you and tell what to think and supply you with the drugs you are addicted to so Be happy.
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|Guy Bono? Strange name.
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|The EC would rip this farcical 'law' apart in seconds.
By seconds, I do of course mean years. After it's been passed from institution to institution, debated a bit, passed on again, burned, eaten, passed on, debated some more, has coffee spilt on it, and is finally passed judgement on.
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|I can't believe French are just idling while their freedom is disappearing. Wake up. Start by impeaching the idiot Sarcozy.
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|Patience... We're waiting for the EU Parliament to declare this local law totalitarian and anti-constitutional.
At worst, we will comply with the fascists and install Pericles... in a secure DOSBox session.
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|Funny thing if you think about all the botnet operators' bots and rootkits and keyloggers and trojans fighting to cease control over computer from government's bots, rootkits and keyloggers. Don't miss the new reality show "Cops and Robbers - Coming to computer in your room" :)
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|That's official, the citizen is the enemy of the state.
How better help dictatorship and totalitarianism in this world than to make democracy a mockery and a softened clone of them .... We are headed this way strongly I am afraid ...
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|I guess you are from India? As I am sure you are well aware, the USA is not a Democracy.
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|From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
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