Christine Treguier on Mon, 27 Mar 2000 02:21:41 +0200 (CEST) |
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[Nettime-bold] News from France |
> FRENCH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY IS TO VOTE A LAW BANNING ANONYMOUS WEB > HOSTING AND PUBLISHING > > Last year, the french internauts went into actions to defend AlternB > and Valentin Lacambre who was sued for different web sites hosted on > his machines. > An amendment of the audiovisual law proposed by PS deputy Patrick > Bloche, saying that providers were not responsible for the contents in > place of the authors, finally stopped the judiciary harassment. > > This audiovisual law is under discussion again since december. > On january 19 the senate rewrote Bloche amendment (Art 43-6-4), > emptying it from its substance. Senators decided that the hosting > server should give the authors' identities to ANY interested party > asking for it. If not, they would risk 50 000F and a 6 months jail > penalty. > > On march 22, the law went in second lecture before the national > assembly which added another chapter to the story. > ----- > The new proposed Art 43-6-4 says : On line services other than private > correspondance,are submitted to an obligation of identification which > can direct or undirect. Every person whose activity is to publish an > online service other than private correspondance has to make publicly > available the following elements : > - if not a moral personnality, the name, second name, and adress > of the physical persons owners or co-owners (of the datas) > - if a moral personnality, its denomination and registered offices > > - the name of the publishing director or editor in chief. > > Every person who is not professionnaly publishing, can make publicly > available only their pseudo and the name of the provider in charge of > hosting theirs datas. In that case, they must therefore communicate > the above mentionned identity elements to the provider. > The fact of mentionning false informations is punished with a 50 000F > fine and 6 months jail penalty. > > Moral entities can be declared legally responsible under the > conditions of article 121-2 of penal code related to the crime > presently defined. > ----- > > Penalties are then defined by artcile 131-38 - which says the fine > for a moral entity can be multiply by 5 ( =250 000F) > and 131-39 - which says definite interdiction of professionnal > activities for a maximum of 5 years, definite closing of the > responsible service, and publication of the sentence in the media. > > Considering that if the identity of the author is not clearly > established by the authors themselves, and not available on request to > the hosting service, the responsabilty is put on the hosting service > and the last sentences can be applied. > > Before this law is applicable that is in less than one month, there > will be a second lecture at Senate and a last lecture and vote at the > assembly. > >This law if passed, will have very perverse side effects : > free, non commercial hosting services will be under increased > financial and judicial pressure, and might just decide to close. > > Independant web-publishers and webmasters will be under increased > financial and judicial pressure, and might decide to give up >Depending on what is meant by "private correspondance", fora, IRC, mailing >lists and newsgroups administrators will be under increased financial and >judicial pressure, and might decide to give up. > > Individual citizens will be under increased financial and judicial > pressure, and might decide to shut up. > > The right to free expression,defined by article 11 of the Declaration > of Human Rights, and Article 12 of Universal Declaration of Human > Rights, will be severely in danger. > > Public expression would be considered as an implicit "trouble to > public order" and therefore repressed. > > Instead of beeing, according to our fundamental rights, innocent > (until proven guilty) and responsible citizens, we would be taken as > de facto non-responsible and guilty citizens > > Seems to be time for "insurgency". > > For more informations : > > www.altern.org > > the january 19 Senate text and debate > http://www.senat.fr/seances/s200001/s20000119/sc20000119005.html > > the march 22 national assembly text and debates > http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/2/cra/2000032215.htm#P203_50318 > > thread on Slashdot > http://slashdot.org/articles/00/03/24/1240210.shtml> > > Write to the french Prime Minister > http://www.premier-ministre.gouv.fr/PM/MAIL.HTM > > French Associations for free-expression and free Internet > http://www.iris.sgdg.org 6 IRIS > http://www.medialibre.org"> Coordination permanente des Medias Libres > http://www.isoc.asso.fr - ISOC > > Any input is welcome, the more this story gets known in and > outside France, the quicker we'll be out of this mess. PS : The minister responsible for this law is likely to be changed this week. Let's hope... _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://www.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold