Digital

French data protection agency give trois-strike monitoring the all clear

By | Published on Monday 21 June 2010

The French data protection regulator CNIL has given the green light for record companies and music publishers to automatically track the IP addresses of suspected illegal file-sharers, meaning the French music industry’s long journey towards getting a three-strikes anti-piracy system up and running has passed one of its final hurdles.

The French government was one of the first to respond to the music industry’s call for new laws that force internet service providers to take a more proactive role in policing online piracy, by sending warning letters to and ultimately cutting off persistent illegal file-sharers.

Though, while the launch of a trios-strikes system has seemed certain for some time now, there have been various set backs along the way, not least the French Constitutional Council’s insistence the government rework its three-strike plans so that a judge would be involved in any disconnections.

But since last Autumn three-strikes has, in theory, been on the French statute book. However various other steps needed to be taken before warning letters could be mailed, CNIL giving the all clear to music companies to snoop on file-sharers being a key one. Music rights holders need permission to be able to legitimately track file-sharing, so to initiate the three-strikes process against suspected copyright infringers.

With that permission now given, there remains just one more step to be taken, some government decrees need to be issued. That should also be done within in the month, and the government agency set up to administer trios-strikes, Hadopi, has said it is ready to start sending out warning letters in July. It’s not clear how long the three-strikes process will take, ie how long it will be before we see the first disconnections of French file-sharers.



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