Under a new a new anti-piracy system unveiled today (but not yet law), French file downloaders will get a warning from their ISP ... and if they ignore it, their internet access could be cut off, says Reuters. It quotes French president Nicolas Sarkozy saying:
"The Internet must not become a high-tech Far West, a lawless zone where outlaws can pillage works with abandon or, worse, trade in them in total impunity. And on whose backs? On artists' backs."
The international recording industry welcomed the idea:
"This is the single most important initiative to help win the war on online piracy that we have seen so far," John Kennedy, head of the industry's trade body IFPI, said.
According to the Financial Times, there is more to the deal:
In exchange for the clampdown on illegal downloading, the music industry has agreed to make individual downloads of archive French material available on all types of players by dropping digital rights management protection.
Whether this will ever be enacted is another matter, but does anybody think it's (a) workable or (b) a good idea?
Update: The Guardian covered the story on Saturday, with Pirates face crackdown over movie downloads, by Bobbie Johnson and Emilie Boyer King in Paris.
