Constitutional law | New French Law on Internet piracy

Thousand French Internet users per day can offline after the approval of the pet project of President Nicolas Sarkozy "an unprecedented act of Internet connections of people who will have to cut illegal music and movies.
When the husband of former supermodel Carla Bruni-pop star and friend of one of the most powerful figures in the French media, Sarkozy has his long friendly relations with the entertainment industry, which estimated the measure.
But many people have been canceled in Europe, say government controls required by law would pave the way for invasive monitoring a violation of privacy is open to violence. And interfere with legal problems at home could be: The opposition will try to explain the law unconstitutional.
Not surprisingly, welcomed music, movies and other industry groups of the measure. John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said on Wednesday that it is a "radical change".
Critics, however, concerns about civil liberties.
"We must be careful not to undermine the free exchange of information," Wolfgang Zankl, said Professor at the University of Vienna and president of the European Centre for e-commerce. "This is a constitutional right that no one should be excluded."
Some Internet experts believe that the law is technically impossible to realize. It requires Internet users are special software that would install the authorities to trace and identify individuals suspected of illegal downloading, but some experts say that these programs do not yet exist.
And because it denies hackers accused the opportunity to defend Web-links are broken, lawyers say it will not stand up in court.
The first test was measured in the short term Tuesday as the opposition Socialists have their objections before the Constitutional Council, one month until a decision is made a. If the Council decides the law is not unconstitutional, it would take effect by summer.
It calls for the investigation of reprisals against the suspects. When a suspected pirates do not want to listen to e-mail alerts and a letter, Internet access would have to be reduced to two months to one year "of the subscriber continues to pay for the service under the terms of the contract.
Christine Albanel, French Minister of Culture proposes Internet connections per day and 1,000 sending warnings of 13 000 offenders in the second or first cut.
United States, the music industry waged war on the exchange of content with limited success. A campaign for repeat offenders was given free to download songs Sue last year in favor of blocking efforts to work more closely with ISPs to try links to those accused. AT & T begins, the largest ISP in the U.S. to send alerts to its subscribers.
Even before the French legislation approved this month, but met resistance in the European Parliament. Elections for a new parliament in June, and the fight for freedom on the Internet has become a campaign issue in some countries such as Sweden, which has a good reputation as a hub for illegal file sharing.
Support Swedish Pirate Party are calling for the legalization of file sharing, more and more, and a recent poll showed the party could win a seat in Parliament.
Christian Engström, candidate of the party, said that French law has a detrimental effect on the free exchange of information on the Internet. French collaboration with the local copyright is not greedy suitable for a western democracy, "he said.
With the exception of Sweden, where a court sentenced four men to help in the last month to one year in jail for the people who download copyrighted material legal proceedings in Europe to dental practice. A Spanish judge this week to hear the case against the accused later of the industry files.