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FC: French government says: Be anonymous online, go to jail
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 00:43:44 -0500
The slashdot thread: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/03/24/1240210&mode=thread The French web site: http://altern.org/defense/vote/ An English translation follows. I would not treat this as confirmed. -DeclanThe National Assembly passes law requiring Web site authors to identify themselves
under penalty of imprisonment. Summary:Web site authors must identify themselves to their hoster before any public
communication can be made, under penalty of imprisonment.In the absence of an identification, the hoster is responsible for the site's
contents and is liable for up to six months in prison.Yesterday, March 22, the national assembly approved an amendment dealing with
the responsibilities of Web site hosters. This law follows from the vote ofthe Senate on January 19 which required Web hosters to disclose the identity of any author to a third party under penalty of six months in prison.
All Web sites whose authors are unknown are the legal responsibility of the hoster. In order to free myself from this responsibility I would have to obtain the identities of each of altern.org's 48,000 users!
Of course, the e-commerce industry will be happy. What could be better than requiring customers to reveal their identities, leaving you the possibility
of commercial exploitation?The goal of this law seems to be to enact self-censorship on the level of the Web hoster, and on the level of the author who, after giving up his identity under penalty of imprisonment, has no insurance that his personal identity will
not be used for unfair profit.This vote, however, is not definitive. A third and last reading must take place. But it will be a question of reconciling differences in the texts put forth by the assembly and by the Senate, so the law could conceivably
get worse.As far as the future of altern.org is concerned, contrary to what I said yesterday before reading the law's exact text, I can continue to host
sites as long as I accept my new role as watchdog. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 government says: Be anonymous online, go to jail Declan McCullagh (Mar 26)