[klipschfan]

05 / 14 / 09

As reported on by Enjoy the Music.com on April 9th, while the United States of America is considering passing a law that essentially legalizes spying on your computer to find allegedly illegally shared music files
"Cybersecurity Act of 2009"
, in France lawmakers are on the verge of passing the same type of law. While the initial vote in France to spy on Internet users failed to receive enough votes, yesterday the law passed in France's government's second attempt, with 296 votes for and 233 against. The United States government readily admits to spying on computer usage for years. The French proposal, called the "Création et Internet", also called the "three strikes" rule in which if someone is caught with illegal music files they could face stiff penalties and/or jail time. First and second offences would be noted by e-mail, while the third such offence would require the Internet provider to stop servicing the customer. A preliminary vote by France's Parliament is expected to pass and also is supported by President Nicolas Sarkozy. A document from this initiative states that "Over and above the consequences this has on the traditional physical media, the culture of pirated works is, today, the main obstacle to the development of legal downloads in our country." The memorandum also states that "However, penalties against illegal downloading exist, on the basis of the criminal offence of infringement of copyright: a maximum fine of €300,000 and up to three years imprisonment. They appear inappropriate however, as does the legal procedure in the event of ordinary pirating." You can read more at this link.