French Model for Anti-Piracy Web Legislation Might Be Implemented in Ottawa

The well known anti-piracy counselor Denis Olivennes (head of a major entertainment retailer in France- photo right) developed France's proposed "graduated response" policy with which to meet the increasing piracy. In case this policy does become law, those who share unauthorized material over the Internet will at first receive e-mail warnings followed afterwards, if they recidivate, by suspension of their Internet connection.

In Olivennes’ view this is the fairest way to reconcile the freedom of the Internet and the protection of intellectual property. Happy with his approach he now seeks to “lend” the model to other countries as well

In a recent interview Olivennes pointed out towards the attempt to balance things evenly - "It's too much to say we'll send to jail our children who are doing illegal downloading, so we were looking for something in between - nobody in jail and no fines ". Meanwhile Canada is on stand by with its new copyright law intended to give piracy a hard time.

After withdrawing the much anticipated legislation back in December industry minister Jim Prentice made now no comment upon the French proposal, saying that the country will wait for the right time and approach to step in with a new legislation.

Charlie Angus, digital affairs critic for the NDP, advised Prentice not to be in favour of adopting the French model as "it's treating every customer as though they were some pirate knock-off shop in Bangkok."

Angus, a musician and author himself for whom copyright royalties ensure the revenue, continued: "It implies it's the obligation of Internet service providers to basically snoop through everything you send. If my daughter buys a song legally and e-mails it to me, is she transporting stolen goods? What recourse are you going to have if someone makes a claim against you? There are just going to be three strikes and you're out?" He does make a solid point.