French vote to punish illegal downloaders

"Three strikes at you're out" policy could become law

3 November 2008 13:09 GMT / By Katie Scott

It was rejected by the EU, but the French government has got one step closer to bringing in a "three strikes and you're out" policy towards internet surfers who download copyright material.

The French Senate has now voted overwhelmingly in favour of the measure.

In fact, 297 politician voted for and only 15 against in a cross-party vote.

The final vote will take place in the French National Assembly where the decision will be taken as to whether to turn the proposal into law.

The three strikes system was originally introduced a year ago as a memorandum of understanding between the government, ISPs and Big Content in France.

Meanwhile, over in the UK, the Green Party has criticised any plans to adopt a similar policy as "an attack on civil liberties" while a couple from Scotland were wrongly threatened with a lawsuit or fine for illegally downloading a game.

The case against the Murdochs has now been dropped after it was found neither had ever played a videogame.

Related
Full tags
Software, Online, Websites, EU, Music downloads
UK Shopping
Amazon.co.uk, play.com, pixmania.co.uk, Currys.co.uk, Dixons.co.uk, 7dayshop.com, ebay.co.uk
US Shopping
Amazon.com, bestbuy.com, ebay.com

share Subscribe to RSS feeds email story save story print story pdf

Comments

(Will not be published)

  (Next time sign in to bypass captcha)

Latest in Software

Latest on Pocket-lint.com

About Pocket-lint

Pocket-lint is your one stop shop for gadgets, technology and consumer electronics, bringing you the low-down on the latest televisions, cameras, phones, GPS and much more. Whether it's learning about what's hot in the world of Apple, finding out about the latest home cinema kit from Samsung and Sony or merely seeing what not to buy, we have you covered. So check out our reviews, news, comment, hands-on photo galleries and videos. Enjoy.

Pocket-lint.com poll

Q. Do you still buy CDs?

Vote YES Vote NO

» LAST TIME
When asked Do you want the Droid by Motorola? 53% said yes and 47% said no

Top 10 Broadband

Compare 50+
broadband packages

Home Broadband »

Top products

tip us on news

Rss feed

Follow us on Twitter