Copyright Law

France to Set a Special Session to Deal With HADOPI

By DrewWilson

It’s no mystery why some would view the French government as persistent with some of its policies and HADOPI is no exception. After opposition successfully delaying HADOPI to September, the government is apparently making a special session first thing to deal with a handful of laws with HADOPI being on the table.

HADOPI, also known as the three strikes legislation for many, has been a very controversial law not just in France, but throughout the world because the copyright industry has been pushing for other countries to adopt similar laws. While the French government has been pushing for the legislation, it doesn’t mean there isn’t fierce resistance. Opposition managed to delay HADOPI up to the September session.

Of course, there is a reason why some who are opposed to HADOPI consider the government stubborn. In a recent news story in LeMonde (Google translated), the government is planning on dealing with HADOPI as well as a few other pieces of legislation in a special session in September.

HADOPI has already had it’s run of dramatic twists and turns. HADOPI originally was to disconnect users on a third copyright infringement complaint, have their names blacklisted amongst ISPs and the users would have to pay for their internet connection even though they had been cut off. In it’s final stages, the Constitutional Council knocked it out, saying that there must be judicial oversight. The French government then backtracked and modified the legislation to force the judges to spend only 5 minutes on each ruling – a process that is said to be at least 40 minutes of work per ruling.

With this latest twist in the HADOPI legislation, it seems that the government is fighting to keep one of the most notorious pieces of French legislation moving forward at breakneck speeds. However, it’s not like the opposition parliamentarians are out of options. No doubt, there’ll be more sparks flying over this piece of legislation.

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Full post as published by ZeroPaid on August 04, 2009 (boomark / email).