The French Constitutional Council has "ripped the heart out of a law that was supposed to put France in the forefront of the fight against piracy on the internet".http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ne...icle6478542.eceIt appears to have ruled that:

1. access to the internet is a fundamental human right
2. the law breached privacy by enabling a government agency to track internet activity.
3. the law beached the separation of powers because if gave an administrative authority power to impose justice
4. the law violated the presumption of innocence because alleged pirates would be cut off without being able to defend themselves

Apparently the law has been put into force without these penal provisions. The administrative authority will still send warnings to abusers although it is not clear how it would track them. It would then be up to prosecutors and the courts to take action. In reality, the courts would be unlikely to have have the time to deal with the number of offenders.

The French Constitutional Council has "ripped the heart out of a law that was supposed to put France in the forefront of the fight against piracy on the internet".http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ne...icle6478542.eceIt appears to have ruled that:

1. access to the internet is a fundamental human right
2. the law breached privacy by enabling a government agency to track internet activity.
3. the law beached the separation of powers because if gave an administrative authority power to impose justice
4. the law violated the presumption of innocence because alleged pirates would be cut off without being able to defend themselves

Apparently the law has been put into force without these penal provisions. The administrative authority will still send warnings to abusers although it is not clear how it would track them. It would then be up to prosecutors and the courts to take action. In reality, the courts would be unlikely to have have the time to deal with the number of offenders.

Another piracy thread... I have a feeling this is going to be closed soon after things get heated up in here.

Another piracy thread... I have a feeling this is going to be closed soon after things get heated up in here.

It is a post about the fact that a law which many hoped would curb piracy will be largely ineffective. A consequence is that developers/producers will have to adopt other means to protect their products.

It is a post about the fact that a law which many hoped would curb piracy will be largely ineffective.

And lets cheer the fact that it is. It would have breached fundamental rights - a price too high even for a just cause.

To be honest, there will never be a way to stop pirates.Cracking is just getting easier every day, with groups like Paradox releasing keygens and such, and these days you can even request people to decode & change the activation mechanism for programs on certain forums.

Another piracy thread... I have a feeling this is going to be closed soon after things get heated up in here.

Absolutely nothing is wrong when members of the forums are kept informed of these legal issues. I did not see anything suggestive of a thread getting closed and felt your remark premature and out of line.-John

I don't think his post was "out of line". Just a few days ago a post pertaining to piracy (which hardly took off) was closed "prematurely", I guess he witnessed this as well. I tend to agree with darem. I'm being watched when I download a no cd .exe for FSX, or message my friends. There is no real privacy.

I'm being watched when I download a no cd .exe for FSX

Gives Zach a funny look......since there's no such thing as a no cd .exe for FSX... :(

We can all easily be monitored, law or no law. Packets :) yes, they can be encoded, but with the right software, decoded again. again, there is anotherway - simply looking at all your outbound/inbound connections - for example, run cmd then type netstat ;)Also, since FSX doesn't require a CD to run, I have no idea what you're smoking ;). (Unless you meant FS04), though if you were insinuating that you can crack FSX, yes you can by, by simply editing a few dll's.

The UK government has released a white paper - Digital Britain - which contains its proposals to combat piracy.http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_librar...eases/6220.aspxIt has rejected the French 3-strikes-and-you're-out approach. Media companies will be able to get the addreses of people allegedly making illegal downloads from ISPs, based on reasonable evidence. The media companies can then send warning letters. If this approach fails to reduce piracy, the governement is prepared to intoduce sanctions such as restrictions on individuals on internet download speed and capacity with bans on access to certain sites. Court approval will be required before sanctions can be applied.Underlying this is a vote in the European Parliament last month that internet access is a fundamental right that can only be taken away as a result of court action - not by the media companies or civil servants as was proposed in France.

The French Constitutional Council has "ripped the heart out of a law that was supposed to put France in the forefront of the fight against piracy on the internet".http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ne...icle6478542.eceIt appears to have ruled that:

1. access to the internet is a fundamental human right
2. the law breached privacy by enabling a government agency to track internet activity.
3. the law beached the separation of powers because if gave an administrative authority power to impose justice
4. the law violated the presumption of innocence because alleged pirates would be cut off without being able to defend themselves

Apparently the law has been put into force without these penal provisions. The administrative authority will still send warnings to abusers although it is not clear how it would track them. It would then be up to prosecutors and the courts to take action. In reality, the courts would be unlikely to have have the time to deal with the number of offenders.

Mgh may I just point out some facts about the way the Constitutional Council is acting in France. I don't know from which country you're a citizen and may be some precisions are necessary on this matter.A/ the Council is a guardian of the respect of our constitution to prevent any abuse on the citizens rights,B/ as far as I can remember from my study of our constitution which is way back in the time of my university studies, a french law cant be put in practice if the Council says it's illegal in total or in part.Here are the comments of the role of the Council in a Wikipedia paper with references to the French Constitution of the Vth Republic of 1958 putting the Council in practice.Sorry for not translating it word to word :[La saisine (art. 61) du Conseil suspend le d

Mgh may I just point out some facts about the way the Constitutional Council is acting in France. I don't know from which country you're a citizen and may be some precisions are necessary on this matter.A/ the Council is a guardian of the respect of our constitution to prevent any abuse on the citizens rights,B/ as far as I can remember from my study of our constitution which is way back in the time of my university studies, a french law cant be put in practice if the Council says it's illegal in total or in part.Here are the comments of the role of the Council in a Wikipedia paper with references to the French Constitution of the Vth Republic of 1958 putting the Council in practice.Sorry for not translating it word to word :[La saisine (art. 61) du Conseil suspend le d

I never imagined or suggested anyrhuing. I reported the facts as they were published.

Mgh I never sthought you imagined or suggested anything.I'm perfectly aware that you gave an info.There is absolutely no personal reaction against yourself. :( :( :( I just wanted to stress some points which probably most of the US citizens or of other countries reading your post did not know about the french Constitution and the Council bylaws. That's all.We must be very cautious on the conclusions of the media in the matter of piracy and its prevention as on any matter.Journalists way to read the bylaws of french institutions in France and abroad are quite often wrong.Most of the guys have never read the french Constitution and draw conclusions without the merest knowledge of what it contains.Even Constitutional experts may have different points of views on how to interpret the bylaws of the Council!So you can figure out that the media are far from caring for that as far as they can put sensational news in their papers to push their readers in the direction of what suits their political or economic views!