France Votes for the Three Strikes Rule

Back in November 2007 President Sarkozy presented the idea of a three strikes policy against file-sharers. Meanwhile the idea has caught roots and now the French Senate has passed this law aiming to crack down on internet piracy.

The French will look from now on at the possibility of seeing themselves disconnected from the internet connections if they repeat the offence of file trading.

Seeing the direction things are taking we cannot but hope that the view of Virgin Media CEO Neil Berkett that the whole concept of internet neutrality is “a load of bollocks” will not be embraced by everybody with the power to make a change.

We also remember the effect such similar attempts have had in the past – the tactic backfired at both ISPs and rights owners. A recent post by P2PON revealed how Atari found embarrassment in its attempt to accuse elderly people of illegal file sharing.

The votes were 297 to 15 in favour of the law, and they’ll be also followed by the creation of new governmental body to supervise the anti-piracy process.