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2. France promotes the three-strike scheme in Europe
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With France taking over the presidency of the European Union on 1 July 2008, the French Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, wants to get a consensus in the fight against p2p downloading by translating the French model to the entire Europe. (((So that took Sarkozy like, what, one day?! I keep telling people Sarkozy doesn't kid around, but they're like: "He's so busy with his disordered personal life!" People, this IS his personal life. His son's a hiphop producer, his wife makes records and he used to be Minister of Communications.)))
Christine Albane presented on 19 June to the French Council of Ministers her proposal for the controversial Internet and Creation law, initiated first by
Denis Olivennes, former CEO of Fnac, designed to fight online piracy, mainly through the implementation of the so-called "three-strikes" scheme. A newly-created independent authority, entitled HADOPI (Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des oeuvres et la protection des droits sur Internet), is to be responsible with issuing warnings and potentially cutting Internet subscriptions in cases of infringements.
At the request of rights holder, HADOPI will have the power to demand from
ISPs the identity of copyright-infringing computer users, followed afterwards by a three-step process. A warning by email will be first sent, and in case the infringements persist, the warning will be sent by a registered letter. For the third infringement, HADOPI will be entitled to cut the Internet access of the user for three up to 12 months. This period may be shortened to one to three months if the infringer commits to stop the alleged illicit downloading.
The law has been approved by the French Government and it will be debated in the two chambers of the Parliament. Despite Albanel's confidence in the draft law and her determination to make it pass, the law is facing a large range of opposition starting with the European Parliament, CNIL, ISOC, reservations from the State Council, ARCEP and ending with criticism from parliamentarians, public opinion, access suppliers and press. (((Let them whine, so long as they pay.)))
Having this in view, it seems SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et
éditeurs de musique) is already thinking of an alternative. As stated by
Bernard Miyet, President of SACEM board of directors, the organisation is not thinking of a global licence but of a contribution from the ISPs.
"When you are a cable distributor such as Numericable and you transport programmes, you pay royalties. When you are a satellite platform, it is the same. On the Internet side, the ISPs have succeeded in avoiding any legal or financial responsibility or, it is well known, that they created all their development on music" he said...."
