France set to cut Web access for music, film pirates (Reuters)

[necroxurius]

PARIS (Reuters) - "Internet users in France who frequently download music or films illegally risk losing Web access under a new anti-piracy system unveiled on Friday.

The three-way pact between Internet service providers, the government and owners of film and music rights is a boon to the music industry, which has been calling for such measures to stop illicit downloads eating into its sales.

Under the agreement -- drawn up by a commission headed by the chief executive of FNAC, one of France's biggest music and film retailers -- service providers will issue warning messages to customers downloading files illegally.

If users ignore those messages, their accounts could be suspended or closed altogether."

Source: Yahoo article
Zeropaid: France to Ban Illegal File-Sharers From the Internet?

[peat moss]

Yikes time to circle the wagons ? First Canada now the rest of the countries follow suit .

[yav_]

I don't think that nothing is gonna happend. I've heard so many times this anouncements and nothing happens

[tusks]

I think the deal will go through actually. Time for more widespread use of anonymous file sharing...

[Ac3Dunk]

I think even if its happen its easy to find pirated movies, music in marseille.They even sell fake clothes nd i remember thats police officer pass by the area nd dealers they dont care at all.

[gnlstryker]

:p

[dave12]

bad news for french

[4play]

This will just encourage encrypted networks in France. can you be kicked if they don't know what your sharing, Maybe but what's the odds someone will step up and sue them for it.

filetopia may just see a huge increase in French users in the future.

[Vercors]

Another move to scare people off, and I doubt it's anything more than this.

Someone made a interesting point on another site : what if I get access to my neighbors' wifi and download pirated content using their connection? If the user get his account suspended, will anyone go through the hassle of checking if someone else was using his connection at the time? Probably not.
There are still a bunch of networks protected with WEP, and enough people know it doesn't take skills nor time to get passed it.

I don't believe the signatories can be as dumb as this...there aren't gonna be just a few people using their neighbors' connection if the deal goes through, and not just a few people being falsely punished

[Sextent]

In the UK using someone else's wifi connection is a criminal offence. The fact that you had to get thro' their encryption only goes to prove that you didn't do it by accident.