AfterDawn: News

France closer to blocking pirates from the Internet

The French Senate has voted in favor of a law that will have pirates kicked off the Internet for multiple offenses and the bill now goes to the French National Assembly for final approval.

Pirates caught illegally sharing protected content will get two warning emails before having their Internet connection cut off.



The idea of the "three strikes law" has been around since late 2007 when French President Nicolas Sarkozy introduced it and called the proposal "a decisive moment for the future of a civilised internet".

Under the law, ISPs will become Internet watchdogs keeping a closer look on the piracy tendencies of its users.

The Senate almost unanimously voted to back the law (297 to 15) and will also create a new government division to strictly oversee anti-piracy.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 5 Nov 2008 1:50

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• 16 comments

• Mez

  It is only a matter of time before all the countries adopt such practices. The media mafia is putting all their efforts/money in that direction.

  5.11.2008 07:59 #1

• OneMember

  Quote:Under the law, ISPs will become Internet watchdogs keeping a closer look on the piracy tendencies of its users.
  And ISP's are coming part of MediaMafia =(
  
  Sad day

  5.11.2008 09:33 #2

• varnull

  Using public money to enforce and protect profits of overseas interests.. that's immoral. France is a pretty militant and very rights conscious country.. they will step on the wrong toes very quickly and find themselves dragged through their own courts for illegal spying and invasion of privacy. Wait and see.
  
  You see lines like this "a decisive moment for the future of a civilised internet". .. and you know exactly what that means.. legalized spying, lies and bullying.. invasion of privacy and mind control. They don't like an internet which has information openly available.. they want people to have access to information like in days of old.. through the state controlled and censored media.
  
  We are going backwards to the 1930's people.. and only a few of us seem to be able to see it.

  5.11.2008 09:40 #3

• windsong

  I think we need some radically new tech to combat the future in regards to privacy. Something along the lines of not having to rely on the cable companies to go online...at all. Maybe a local darknet or something..I dunno but here in Ontario the two main ISPs, Rogers and Bell, are already trying to bully the smaller 3rd party isps into instigating mandatory download caps on "Bell's" lines..despite it really isn't THEIR lines at all since it was govt subsidized (i.e. paid by the taxpayers).
  
  Yes, radical technology indeed is whats needed. And needs to be done by the community..NOT corporations, who will bleed us dry. Anyone hazard a guess as to how much it would cost to "beam" to another country if teleportation tech was ever developed? It would cost more than an airline ticket!

  5.11.2008 13:51 #4

• plazma247

  zut alors - http://anomos.info/wp/index.php ;)

  6.11.2008 06:00 #5

• Mez

  Varnull, agreed, that is why the media mafia has to pay more for such a law. The US deferred to vote on our bill till after the election. They know it is wrong an unpopular but the media mafia has given them too much money to ignore. Only the banking industry gave our elected officials more. Funny thing the banking community had paid them off in advance. They knew their industry was on the verge of collapse. Buying up bad loans at 100% value is criminal not even immoral. US elected officials have a 9% approval rating. When you get rid of scum you get new scum. The voters can’t win.
  
  windsong, there are darknets up and running. The bigger ones are monitored close enough that someone in Japan, one of the 3 where P2P is illegal, posted something to DL and he was apprenhended in less than 24 hrs. The problem is you can't hide your band width from the ISP. Even with IP tunneling and rotating the IP addresses does not prevent ease-dropping if they really want to.
  
  Remember the ISPs have bigger pockets than the P2P groups.
  
  In the US the privacy laws, protect the P2P user. All you need to do is change the laws that that will go away as soon as it is signed. They already know what you are doing. However, the information was obtained illegally. ISPs have developed multiple effective technologies to stop P2P. However, IPS are only in it for the money. I am guessing that the reason they losened up their grip is they were losing customers. Comcast the pioneer in crushing P2P sent out a letter stating that they may increase the 200-250 g limit per mon next year after they implememnt new technology.
  
  However, if the laws change, I suspect only the sneekiest P2P users have any chance at all of not getting caught. I am figuring that even they will be on a shorter leash than they think.

  6.11.2008 08:00 #6

• varnull

  Fista insecurity (and the n00bs who buy it knowing nothing) and wireless is our saviour... I can crack wpa-psk in about 30 minutes for a tough nut.. standard wpa takes about 30 seconds. That's my p2p source.. other peoples internet connections. If you really want to hide then once you are in you spoof that you are the wireless printer that is turned off but in their hosts tables... too much information :)
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work. The flower of carnage-shura no hana..

  6.11.2008 08:13 #7

• Mez

  Varnull, that is the best security. However, what if they hack into the host and not find the files? They will know what is going on. I am not sure what they can do then. My guess they will shelf you and go after the easy prey first. What I would not do is vary your host unless you do it in a way to lead them away from your house.
  
  Because you have covered your tracks so well (untraceable computer, NEC and OS), they might not have the resources to ever catch you. When you mentioned the lengths you went through to be anonymous, all the comments stated you were nuts. They will all be grist for the mill if the laws change and they do not alter their behavior.
  
  I am convinced you will be one of the last ones standing.

  6.11.2008 08:52 #8

• joe777

  If this really goes through then the key to it all is the way they track you. As in this logitec company wont allow their tracking software to be independently scrutinized. So if you stick to your guns and argue "how do we know the source is accurate" to the ISP,( after the first email) then we must come to a sticky situation. And where it goes from there, nobody knows eh?
  Anyway I think, come time, there will be a safer way to exchange data on the net for the general public and as the worlds wan**r music/film companies push this through so will new forms of p2p software be created to combat all this silly nonsense of sharing is not politicaly correct. Politics and politicians will not prevail in the fight with piracy and pirates, cause we all do it for fun and the ability to share information, not as a 9 to 5!!!!

  6.11.2008 17:05 #9

• kpzoo

  Why don't they do this to spammers...

  7.11.2008 07:09 #10

• sparkery

  Isn't freenet anonymous? The more people that join freenet the faster it will get. On the other hand if the ISP's restrict the internet boring emails and browsing I will only need a tenth of my current subscription. It will hurt them more than it will hurt me.

  7.11.2008 17:32 #11

• avoidz

  Originally posted by varnull: Fista insecurity (and the n00bs who buy it knowing nothing) and wireless is our saviour... I can crack wpa-psk in about 30 minutes for a tough nut.. standard wpa takes about 30 seconds. That's my p2p source.. other peoples internet connections. If you really want to hide then once you are in you spoof that you are the wireless printer that is turned off but in their hosts tables... too much information :)*cough, boast*

  8.11.2008 08:35 #12

• Jemborg

  *cough, jealous*

  9.11.2008 18:26 #13

• varnull

  *cough* little kid trying to get busted.. probably another pedo from some monitored newsgroup.
  
  dear moderator.. please PM me avoidz ip so I can teach the windows using little kid just who is boasting ;)
  

  
  
  Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work. The flower of carnage-shura no hana..

  9.11.2008 18:49 #14

• onya

  *cough, someone call a medic*
  

  
  

  10.11.2008 02:50 #15

• Mez

  Quote:Isn't freenet anonymous?quote]DON'T bet on it! In Japan a different anonymous network has been compromised.
  
  The safest way is to be doing your stuff on someone else's dime. What it does is add another thick layer of protection to what you have. The real question is how bad do they want you?
  
  If they go after anyone they will go after the low lying fruit first. If they go after torrent users they will start with the most active users that do not encrypt their flows.

  10.11.2008 07:33 #16