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The so-called three-strikes law, proposed late last year by president Nicolas Sarkozy, will suspend the internet connections of p2p users alleged to have been caught three times downloading copyright content. On the first two occasions they will be issued with warnings; on the third they will be disconnected for three months.

The law will come into effect in January and he French Ministry of Culture expects a "significant reduction" of as much as 70 or 80% in illegal downloading.

The news has naturally been welcomed by the music industry.

"This is the most important initiative to help win the war on online piracy that we have seen," said John Kennedy, chief executive of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries (IFPI).

In return French entertainment industries are said to have agreed to drop all DRM from digital content.

The

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laws will be enforced by a new agency, which will act on complaints from copyright holders. However it remains to be seen whether it has addressed the key concerns about the policing of p2p traffic - fundamentally its unreliability - as the US movie industry admitted just recently.

Such are the concerns that the country's own data protection agency opposes the legislation.

France's action will only encourage record companies in the UK that are keen to see similar laws, or at least persuade ISPs to agrees to voluntary policing. The government has said it will legislate if that does not happen, but has denied that it plans a three-strikes approach.

The European Commission has also intimated that it may intervene, and with France due to take the EU presidency soon, action mat be sooner rather than later. However any proposals are unlikely to be opposed by the European Parliament, which in April backed a report calling on the Commission to "avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of Internet access".

[photo: sarkozy_2 by thewritingzone]