Elsie Law's Daily Dose Of The Law

Governments globally have been trying to control the vast terrain that is the internet. Copyright owners- specifically giant music corporations- have been attempting to come up with a palpable strategy that will allow them to profit from their content, without diminishing their customers. The rules of engagement have been fuzzy- to say the least. For now, different governments are developing different modes of operation when it comes to the whole copyright/internet quagmire.

In France, piracy legislation- which was backed by the President of France- was recently proposed. The legislation was an attempt by the entertainment industry to implement a "three-strikes" law when it comes to file-sharing in France. Under the proposed law, people who were caught "illegally" sharing files would receive an initial warning. If they persisted in the sharing past a third time, their internet connection would be terminated for a year.

According to The BBC, opponents to the law argued that, "the wrong people might be punished should hackers hijack their computers' identity and that the scheme amounted to state surveillance."

The French Senate approved the law. However, the law was defeated in the National Assembly and will not be implemented for now. There is also still a possibility that this legislation will be re-introduced in Parliament over the next few months.