New anti-piracy plan in French

A new anti-piracy plan! French web users caught pirating or illegally sharing movies or music could soon be thrown offline. Thanks to a newly-created anti-piracy body granted the wide-ranging powers.

The group who brokered the deal said the measures were intended to curb casual piracy rather than tackle large scale pirate groups.


Net firms will monitor what their customers are doing and pass on information about persistent pirates to the new independent body. Those identified will get a warning and then be threatened with either being cut off or suspended if they do not stop illegal file-sharing.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the deal was a "decisive moment for the future of a civilised internet".

The agreement between net firms, record companies, film-makers and government was drawn up by a special committee created to look at the problem of the net and cultural protection. Link