New internet piracy law comes into effect in France
Found on BBC News on Thursday, 31 December 2009
Illegal downloaders will be sent a warning e-mail, then a letter if they continue, and finally must appear before a judge if they offend again.
The judge can impose a fine, or suspend their access to the internet.
The law was backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy and the entertainment industry.
Good thing this law comes into effect now instead of last year; otherwise, Sarkozy (or several members of his staff) would have had to appear before a judge and explain why they infringed on copyrighted music, mass-pirated DVDs and violated the copyright of another song. In the first case, they used a song although the request was rejected by the label because it didn't wanted it to be used for political purposes, then they made 400 illegal copies of a documentary (they even replaced the name of the original publisher) and in the third case, they relased a video without getting permission to use the music in it. All that goes way beyond the filesharing they try to fight: their actions show real criminal streaks. So, let's just be fair and fine or kick them off the Internet. Égalité, wasn't there something like that?