France kills internet access to those who download illegally.

**Heather** · 05-18-2009, 10:32 AM

A little more of the political side of technology for those interested:

A week old now - but still an interesting story. France broke with the EU last week and pushed through some very interesting legislation - essentially on your 3rd strike you could lose internet connection for up to one year - loss of internet is so contentious, this law may not last long.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10238912-93.html
Anyone from France in particular care to comment?

But who knows....it looks like the UK may be going this route soon as well:
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/...cle6275564.ece

**soundman98** · 05-18-2009, 11:18 AM

hmm. europeans and their laws.. (I'm from the usa, btw) I see no mention of how this law works-- so if your were to do all of this at a internet cafe, would/could they track/disable the mac address, or would the cafe get the warning or be disabled?

**colin** · 05-18-2009, 11:39 AM

I dont think they'd disable my MAC address, you could just use a different router and be back in business. They'd disable by your name and your address. Your whole house would be unallowed to sign up for any ISP, and if you moved, your name would be banned so that you couldn't sign up in your new house either until your ban was finished. Meaning if you did this at an internet cafe, it would be hilarious

**Heather** · 05-18-2009, 11:50 AM

Financial times had a good few articles on this - the coffee house/internet cafe was cited as a challenge - but presumably "they" have done the numbers and this is an insignificant source of copyright file sharing...

Or maybe not - there was some talk about Sarkozy's wife (sort of a singer) being an advocate of this. No matter - the question is, does everyone have the right to internet no matter what?

**DarquePervert** · 05-18-2009, 04:10 PM

If you're paying for a service, you have the right to use that service.
If you misuse/abuse the service, the provider has the right to bar you from their service.
If you use the service for illegal means, the provider has the right to prosecute, as well as anyone that may have been harmed, i.e. the artists whose work you stole.

Internet access is not a right, but a service, aleing one that is more and more important to every day life. But you screw it up, and you don't get none.

**bmw_car_pc** · 05-18-2009, 04:50 PM

so you take your laptop or what have you and move to a different WIFI hotspot, or change your mac address lol its not hard. My apartment complex has wifi over the whole thing and I was updating my site and i guess using to much bandwidth so they blocked me, I just changed my MAC address and I was on within 5 mins again.

**csfile** · 05-19-2009, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by bmw_car_pc

so you take your laptop or what have you and move to a different WIFI hotspot, or change your mac address lol its not hard. My apartment complex has wifi over the whole thing and I was updating my site and i guess using to much bandwidth so they blocked me, I just changed my MAC address and I was on within 5 mins again.

I was thinking the same thing...could be tough to enforce

**Crinos** · 05-19-2009, 08:00 AM

Then what about iPhone plans... Most of the plans have some amount, or even free Mb per month... Will the ISPs go to the T(elecom)SPs and say.., "hey... Mr. Crinos is on our ban list, so you need to ban him from your network".

**eigenVector** · 05-19-2009, 09:07 AM

Originally Posted by DarquePervert

If you're paying for a service, you have the right to use that service.
If you misuse/abuse the service, the provider has the right to bar you from their service.
If you use the service for illegal means, the provider has the right to prosecute, as well as anyone that may have been harmed, i.e. the artists whose work you stole.

Internet access is not a right, but a service, aleing one that is more and more important to every day life. But you screw it up, and you don't get none.

... oops, I mean:

This one will get costly to enforce. Everybody needs to make sure they secure their own wireless connections. Wireless hot spots will need to make precautions to prevent these actions, because they will be held liable. But this shouldn't be anything new.

**Crinos** · 05-19-2009, 09:50 AM

I think this is more a law to scare ppl with. As noted... It will be realy hard to enforce.

Situation:
My noob neighbour sets up a unsecure WiFi
I use it, and download stuff from it.
Every time I download, I erase the logs on his unprotected routere where the user and password is still the same as out of the box default.
My neighbour gets the blame for a crime that he did not commit....

Or? Do the french want the fact that one is unable to secure a WiFi to be a crime in it self?

As noted... I think this law is just to intimidate noobish parents and perhaps some kids... That's all.