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France's HADOPI law, in English
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sat, 23 May 2009 14:23:12 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: PK <djc () resiak org> Date: May 22, 2009 8:10:39 AM EDT To: nnsquad () nnsquad orgCc: joe fay <joe.fay () sitpub com>, Jérémie Zimmermann <jz () laquadrature net >
Subject: [ NNSquad ] France's HADOPI law, in English Reply-To: djc () resiak org I've just finished translating into English the French HADOPI law regulating intellectual property policy on the Internet and establishing penalties for violation of intellectual property rights. The draft is available at http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/HADOPI_full_translation"HADOPI" stands for "High Authority for the dissemination of works and the
protection of rights on Internet", the administrative body -- that is, a body appointed, operating by decree, and outside the judicial system --which will be charged with detecting illicit copying of protected material, and catching and punishing those it holds responsible. This law recently
passed in the French legislature by a narrow margin.Article 5 is the one most relevant to the controversy that has surrounded
the law, which stems from two fundamental disagreements:first: whether it is wise, or even legal, to entrust this very sensitive and consequential matter to an appointed administrative body rather than
to the courts; and second: whether the sanctions envisioned, which can have the effect of depriving entire households of Internet service if the High Authority decides that a subscriber has committed three infractions -- the so-called "three strikes" or "graduated response" provision -- areconsistent with the view that Internet service today has become a public
utility like telephone service or electricity, and should be regulated like one. The heavy emphasis on "technical measures" to detect illicit activity is also worth noting.The European Parliament, in its latest session, rejected by a huge majority the notion of purely administrative authority over copying, in which it is in conflict with the EU Council. As a result of this conflict the Telecom
Package of which these elements are part has not yet passed; the whole package, including this provision, is now in negotiation between theParliament and the Council. If legislators hold their ground for the final version in this negotiation, then the EU Telecom Package law will supersede
France's law. Of course this would also have repercussions throughout Europe.Please draw errors in the translation to my attention. Any progressively
corrected versions will appear at the same URL. Pete Kaiser ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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