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FC: French proposed anti-anonymity law requires "identity escrow"
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2000 10:17:52 -0400
*********** Earlier thread on "French government says be anonymous online, go to jail": http://www.politechbot.com/p-01037.html *********** Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 20:54:47 +0200 From: jmm <jmm () free fr> To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com> Subject: FRENCH LAW : A corporate law regulates public individual expression Hi, just thought this might interest you and the other politechbotersFrench Law on audiovisual communication must not regulate citizen's freedom of expression on the
internetThe revision of 1986's "Liberty of Communication" bill of law will be voted on June 28th.
This law project defines the rights and dutys of audiovisual communications companies, and include an internet chapter. The 43-6-4 sub-amendment, which has been proposed without public debate, frames the citizens' freedom of expression on the internet, with a beforehands obligation of
identification.Each citizen, willing to publish on the web, or to post in a mailing-list, a discussion's forum or a newsgroup, will have to publish his surname, first name and address on his homepage, or to give
it to his provider.Such a law, regulating public expression, must be debated on a wide and public range, especially , as it is the case, when it goes against the actual rules and practices concerning citizen's
privacy.We ask the sub-amendment 43-6-4 to be withdrawn by the government and the examination of such clauses to be postponed until the coming law relative to information society, which will be proposed during the next fall Parliament's session by M. Christian Pierret, french Minister of Industry.
We urge every citizen who feel concerned by the defense of civil liberties to join this appeal.
www.lantre.org/vospapiersPlease also note that France organized the 1st World Summit of Internet Regulators
-while everybody was looking at the Millenium Round-, + the G8 oncybercrime, and that France will soon take the presidency of the European Union...
---------- Translation of the actual bill of law: BILL OF LAW MODIFYING THE LAW OF SEPTEMBER 30 1986 RELATIVE TO AUDIOVISUAL LIBERTY OF COMMUNICATION (Last lecture at the assembly ) Article 1er A CHAPITRE VI « Clauses relative to on line communication services other than private correspondance » Art. 43-6-1.- Physical and moral persons, whose activity is to provide accessto on line communication services other than private correspondance, have to, on
one side inform their subscribers about the existence of technical means allowing to restrain access to certain services or to select them, on the other side to propose them these means. Art. 43-6-2.- Physical and moral persons who handle, freely or commercially, the direct and permanent storage of signals, texts, images, sounds or messages of all nature accessible through their services and at the disposal of the public, are responsible at the penal or civil level for the content of these services only if : - having been seized by a judicial authority, they have not acted promptly to forbid access to these contents; -or having been seized by a third party estimating that the content they hostis illicit or causes him a prejudice, they have not proceeded to the appropriate
diligences; Art. 43-6-3.- The providers mentionned in articles 43-6-1 and 43-6-2 have to hold and keep the datas allowing identification of the person having contributed to the creation of a content of the services they are providing. They also have to provide people who publish an on line communication service other than private correspondance, technical means allowing them to satisfy to the identification conditions determined in article 43-6-4. Without prejudice of the eventuel application of the clauses of article 226-22 of the penal code', the fact of using the dats mentionned in the first alinea for ends other than responding to requests of judicial authorities, which can order communication to the providers mentioned in articles 43-6-1 and 43-6-2 , is punished by the penalties determined by article 226-21 of the penal code. A state Council decree defines trhe datas mentionned in the first alinea and determines the duration and modalities of their conserving. Art. 41-6-4.-I. Persons whose activity is to publish an online communication service other than private correspondance, have to hold at the disposal of the public: - if they are physical persons, their name, first name and adress;- if they are moral persons, their denomination, or their name, and registered
offices; -the name of the director or co-director of publication, and eventually, the name of the editor in the sens of article 93-2 of the law n° 82-652 of july 29 1982 on audiovisual communication.-the name or denomination and registered offices of the provider mentionned in
article 43-6-2.II. Persons non professionnaly publishing an online communication service can,
to protect their anonymity, hold at the disposal of the public only the name or
denomination and registered offices of the provider mentionned in article 43-6-2, with reservation of having communicated him the elements of personnal identification mentionned in the present article. _________________ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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- FC: French proposed anti-anonymity law requires "identity escrow" Declan McCullagh (Jun 19)