The Story
We’ve talked about the French three strikes law a lot here on TechGeist. For those who don’t remember, it was a law which threatened to disconnect French users from the internet for merely beingaccused of piracy three times. Well, according to a new report, the French government has passed into law a replacement law, called Hadopi 2. The report also states that the original objectors to Hadopi have already launched a complaint that the law is unconstitutional. This time around, users can be disconnected from the internet for up to a year if a single judge decides that the defendant is indeed guilty of filesharing. Additionally, it is no longer a defense to say that you have an open network – you are just as punishable under the law.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent
I’m a fan of the idea that to throw someone in jail, you must first prove that they have committed the crime of which they are accused. Apparently France isn’t. The new provision says that if you are accused of copyright infringement, you cannot say that it just as well could have been someone else using your network. You are now liable for what other people do on your network. This has massive implications. Businesses with multiple networks, households with room mates, and just good samaritans can be screwed by this law. If I’m living in an apartment with some people and we have a WiFi network, whoever is paying for the internet service is the one who’s getting a sentencing. Additionally, if I leave my network unencrypted so passersby can hop online for something, I’m losing service for a year for trying to be nice.
The fact that there is no trial for people accused of copyright infringement is what really highlights the failures of this law. OK, so it’s illegal to leave your network open. But what if someone hacks into your network and pulls down files? WEP has been insecure for years, and these days even WPA is crackable. Just data that some files went through a network is not enough to cut off someone’s internet for a year.
I feel like a broken record saying it, but it seems to me that governments still don’t understand that the internet is not just some vector for filesharing. The internet allows access to education, news, health records, financial records, business opportunities, and a whole slew of other things. Cutting off someone’s internet for a year without real proof that the person in any way broke the law is simply unacceptable.
