By Jan Libbenga for The Register. This
story was reproduced with permission.
Last month, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy insisted on a
similar "three-strikes-and-you're-out" scheme for France. Under a
cross-industry agreement, ISPs would have to cut off access for up
to a year for third-time offenders. Sarko believes "there is no
reason that the internet should be a lawless zone".
The French legislation, which still needs to be examined by the Senate
and eventually by the National Assembly, is facing fierce
criticism. The French ISP association says it is against the
law.
Now Sarkozy, who took over the European presidency this week, is
trying to stretch the measure across Europe through
amendments (pdf) to the Telecoms Package, a review of European
telecoms law currently in the European Parliament.
Critics fear that through this legislation European ISPs could
also be mandated to block legitimate traffic in an effort to
'prevent' illegitimate traffic slipping by. Some amendments will
transform the ISPs from technical intermediaries into law
enforcers.
Action groups Netzpolitik.org, Open Rights Group and La
Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net) have been actively campaigning
on the issue. They believe the amendments will "pave the way for
the monitoring and filtering of the internet by private companies,
exceptional courts and Orwellian technical measures".
The Industry Committee and Internal Market Committees will vote
on the telecom package on Monday. The plenary discussion and vote
for the whole package will take place in September.
© The Register
2008
