"Off with their Nets!"

From the IPKat's friend Hugo Cox comes this link to the current French internet law initiative regarding serial downloaders. The position is that the French Senate has overwhelmingly voted to support a law that would cut off internet access to surfers who repeatedly download copyright music, films or video games without paying. The "graduated response" (that's the polite term for "three strikes and you're out") legislation will provide that illegal downloaders first get an email warning them of their infraction; next they get a warning letter in the post. Finally their internet connection will be severed for a full year.

Right: the French have a simple but effective way to keep serial downloaders offline -- and by the end of the year they hope to have perfected a technique for reconnection ...

Massively popular, this measure was passed by 297 votes to 15 -- but it is not as popular with the European Parliament as it is with the French, since in September the European Parliament voted heavily in favour of outlawing cut-off.