FC: French proposed anti-anonymity law requires "identity escrow"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

***********
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 politechboters

French Law on audiovisual communication must not regulate citizen's freedom 
of expression on  the
internet

The 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We ask the sub-amendment 43-6-4 to be withdrawn by the government and the 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/vospapiers


Please also note that France organized the 1st World Summit of Internet 
Regulators
-while  everybody  was  looking  at  the  Millenium  Round-, + the G8 on
cybercrime, 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 access
to 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 host
is 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.



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