Intellectual Property Law

HADOPI: 3 Strikes Law Gets Its Own Strike

By Wendy Seltzer

The French Constitutional Court Wednesday struck down the provisions of the HADOPI “graduated sanction” law that would have required Internet service providers to cut off subscribers access (while continuing to take their payments) after repeat warnings of copyright infringement.

The Court’s ruling recognizes the importance of Internet access and the necessity of due process — before access is cut off:

12. Whereas under Article 11 of the Declaration on the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789: “The free communication of thoughts and opinions is one of the most precious rights of man: every citizen may therefore speak, write and print freely, except to respond to the abuse of this freedom in cases determined by law” that in the current state of communications and given the widespread development of communication services to the public online and the importance of these services for participation in democratic life and to the expression of ideas and opinions, this right includes freedom to access these [Internet] services;

See more at La Quadrature du Net.

Although French legislators say they will revise the law to leave its graduated warnings, the stripping of its automatic termination provisions is an important recognition that copyright cannot trump democratic communication.

Full post as published by Legal Tags on June 12, 2009 (boomark / email).