France Kills 3-Strikes Disconnection Penalty

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It looks like, instead of kicking copyright infringers off the internet, the French government would rather have more money. Imagine that.

After years of debate and controversy the French Government has finally backtracked on the law which allowed errant subscribers to be disconnected from the Internet. This morning a decree was published which removed the possibility for file-sharers to have their connections cut for copyright infringement. Instead, those caught by rightsholders will now be subjected to a system of automated fines.
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There's a joke about the French giving up in there somewhere. :p
You need funds to keep the old gravy train running.
 
Automated fines sounds like they went from being assholes to assholes who want money. They didn't give up on it, they just found a way to make it profitable and with incentive.
 
Ashbringer said:
Automated fines sounds like they went from being assholes to assholes who want money. They didn't give up on it, they just found a way to make it profitable and with incentive.
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I was only talking about giving up on the disconnects.
 
The fines start at 60 euros (from another site) going up to 1500. While excessive from a purely monetary view (companies rarely get fined more than 3 times the damages) it seems like a sane and fair system to me.
 
Tak Ne said:
The fines start at 60 euros (from another site) going up to 1500. While excessive from a purely monetary view (companies rarely get fined more than 3 times the damages) it seems like a sane and fair system to me.
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Where's the accountability? What's keeping them from just sending them out to anyone who they have a hunch may have pirated something? This can work but I have my doubts.
 
Siphric_Acid said:
Where's the accountability? What's keeping them from just sending them out to anyone who they have a hunch may have pirated something? This can work but I have my doubts.
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Exactly. It's like the yellow light at stop lights. Who gets to dictate when it's OK to drive through a yellow and when it's treated like driving through a red? Whenever money is involved, it becomes a business.

You so much as download a photo from a website and you'll receive a fine.
 
Siphric_Acid said:
Where's the accountability? What's keeping them from just sending them out to anyone who they have a hunch may have pirated something? This can work but I have my doubts.
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Nothing is stopping them except common sense and while they often make bad decisions they're not stupid. If they did that we'd see a lot more of those "87 year old grandmother accused of pirating german porn" headlines. Theres also nothing stopping you from doing the same. Even if they did act on a hunch and spam notices i'd still rather get a fine than disconnected.
 
Tak Ne said:
Nothing is stopping them except common sense and while they often make bad decisions they're not stupid. If they did that we'd see a lot more of those "87 year old grandmother accused of pirating german porn" headlines. Theres also nothing stopping you from doing the same. Even if they did act on a hunch and spam notices i'd still rather get a fine than disconnected.
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Getting disconnected is almost impossible. You'll find a way to get back on the net.
 
Ashbringer said:
Exactly. It's like the yellow light at stop lights. Who gets to dictate when it's OK to drive through a yellow and when it's treated like driving through a red? Whenever money is involved, it becomes a business.

You so much as download a photo from a website and you'll receive a fine.
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Uhh yellows are extremely clear (well except their duration) if your car crosses in to the intersection AFTER the yellow turns red its illegal, of you cross in to the intersection while its still yellow you're perfectly legal...
 
^Indeed. But yellow lights having varying time in which it changes is a problem.

I can see it going on with no real accountability. Which is a problem. Definitely sounds better than most ... but I haven't read the article as I'm at work and it's banned here.
 
tazeat said:
Uhh yellows are extremely clear (well except their duration) if your car crosses in to the intersection AFTER the yellow turns red its illegal, of you cross in to the intersection while its still yellow you're perfectly legal...
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just to be clear--it depends on the state
 
The three strikes thing was sort of stupid because it's pretty obvious some creepy old ex-gamer came up with it. I mean really, why three? Why does everyone have this infatuation with three? Three strikes, three lives, the three pieces of the mystical redneck christmas carol CD, three energy drinks, three hundred pound gamer....it's everywhere and that makes people seem silly.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
The three strikes thing was sort of stupid because it's pretty obvious some creepy old ex-gamer came up with it. I mean really, why three? Why does everyone have this infatuation with three? Three strikes, three lives, the three pieces of the mystical redneck christmas carol CD, three energy drinks, three hundred pound gamer....it's everywhere and that makes people seem silly.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/fashion/sundaystyles/12three.html?_r=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU4pyiB-kq0

That's why three :p :cool:
 
You watching California? That's your democratic socialist role model you so often admire, yet just like California despite being a modern first world entity the government is always bankrupt despite all the anti-business leeching and taxes stacked on taxes.

I think it would take complete economic collapse before we see real change, but France is propped up by the productive members in the UK like their neighbors Germany and likewise California can't fail with 49 other states in the union. Ugh.
 
Ducman69 said:
I think it would take complete economic collapse before we see real change, but France is propped up by the productive members in the UK like their neighbors Germany and likewise California can't fail with 49 other states in the union. Ugh.
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I presume you meant EU ... I am not sure Great Britain and company or France would enjoy being lumped into the United Kingdom :D
 
Yeah say what you will about the French but at least their laws on this aren't obnoxiously backwards like our laws

Today’s changes by the French don’t mean that infringing file-sharers can relax though. The decree goes on to explain that file-sharing offenses may still be punishable by a fine, up to 1500 euros in the case of gross negligence.
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Where as in the US the fines can be a maximum of $150,000 per infringement...
 
sfsuphysics said:
Yeah say what you will about the French but at least their laws on this aren't obnoxiously backwards like our laws

Where as in the US the fines can be a maximum of $150,000 per infringement...
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Yeah, France appears to be one of the first governments to understand the difference between commercial copyright infringement and some kid downloading a few mp3s.

In the UK we get idiots like Peter Mandelson who despite having to resign twice for being an allegedly corrupt asshole still managed to be the guy who decided our copyright policy for the 'digital age' and screws us right after a nice paid holiday from David Geffen.
 
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