Xboxist

Are You a Game Pirate? France Would Like a Word

In the United States, pirates of all stripes have encountered relatively friendly waters. With the exception of incursions by the much-maligned RIAA and MPAA, and occasional busts of major bootleg printing operations, the majority of websites and pirate users have been allowed to continue without interruption. There have not been any major busts of video game pirates in this country in recent memory. However, there are signs that this permissive environment is about to be challenged by legislators outside of North America.

In Sweden, the government finally managed to bring suit against the operators of the Pirate Bay, a court case that is still working its way through the Swedish legal system. This case marked a major change in the permissive attitude toward piracy in Europe that pirates had enjoyed for many years, even leading websites like The Pirate Bay to taunt holders of copyrighted intellectual property in the USA.

Now, France is about to take a particularly tough stance on piracy. The government has approved passage of a law which will make it illegal for any internet user to download copyrighted material over file-sharing networks. According to some sources, one in three of France's 30 million web users admit to downloading music, films or video games on the Internet with some 450,000 movie copies a day downloaded in France during 2008.

How will the government accomplish this seemingly impossible task of banning pirates from the Internet? Simply because they have the cooperation of all of the country’s major internet Service Providers (ISPs). The service providers will monitor use of customers’ internet connection, looking for specially marked “dummy” files that are masquerading as pirate games, music and movies. When an ISP detects such a download, it is authorized to warn, and then ban the user for one year. A big catch: The user still has to pay for the internet connection that they are effectively banned from using during the penalty period. This last concession was the only way to get the ISPs on board with this controversial proposal.

While it may appear on the surface that such a draconian stance on piracy could only take hold in a socialized country like France, there is no doubt that copyright holders would eventually like to see such a system implemented in other parts of the world. While it is important to respect the hard work and investment that goes into creating fresh new IPs, it is important to balance their protection with a concern for privacy and civil liberties on the web. A difficult and controversial issue, and one that will be interesting to follow as it plays out in Europe.