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Deutsch: Frankreichs Parlament verfolgt weiterhin sein Ziel das Internet zu zen...
On 16 February, the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, passed the first draft of the so-called Loppsi 2 bill allowing the authorities to control the Internet under the pretext of improving the citizens' security.
The new legislation deals not only with child pornography sites, but has in view a long blacklist of other types of websites that ISPs will have to block. The list of banned Web sites would be provided by the Interior Ministry and it would be "the responsibility of each Internet service provider to ensure that users don't have access to unsuitable content." According to article 4 of the draft law, the ISPs contacted by the authorities must block without delay the designated sites under the threat of being fined up to 75 000 euro and one year of imprisonment for their administrators in case of non-compliance.
The new legislation also allows the French police and security forces to enter a suspect's house and clandestinely install software to spy on private computers, following a judge decision.
Loppsi 2 contains other provisions as well, including improved interoperability between police files and personal data kept by institutions such as banks and a tripling of surveillance cameras in France under the pretext of "video protection."
MEP Sandrine Béllier believes the bill represents "a serious threat" to the neutrality of the Internet. "The filtering and blocking of the Web has become a standard weapon in the legislative arsenal of a government which has been shameless in its handling of personal freedoms," she said in an interview.
"Protection of childhood is shamelessly exploited by Nicolas Sarkozy to implement a measure that will lead to collateral censorship and very dangerous drifts. After the HADOPI comes the LOPPSI: the securitarian machinery of the government is being deployed in an attempt to control the Internet at the expense of freedoms", stated Jérémie Zimmermann from La Quadrature du Net.
The draft law will go for a second reading in the Senate and, if approved, it could come into force this summer.
The French Senate also started on 23 February 2010 the discussions on the draft legislation for the opening of the online gambling market that would require the ISPs to block any unauthorised gambling websites.
France Moves Closer to Unprecedented Internet Regulation (17.02.2010)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,678508,00.html
French Parliament approves Net censorship (11.02.2010)
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/french-parliament-approves-net-censorsh...
Loppsi was adopted by the National Assembly (only in French, 16.02.2010)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/15100-la-loppsi-a-ete-adoptee-par-l-a...
Loppsi: the installation of software spies to suspects is adopted (only in
French, 11.02.2010)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/15076-loppsi-l-installation-de-moucha...
Filtering of web sites: ISPs simple executants (only in French, 9.02.2010)
http://www.journaldunet.com/ebusiness/le-net/loppsi-et-internet/filtra...
Online gambling filtering examined this Tuesday in the Senate (only in
French, 23.02.2010)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/15127-le-filtrage-des-jeux-en-ligne-e...,
EDRi-gram: LOPPSI 2 French law - to block or not to block websites
(27.01.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.2/loppsi-2-france-blocking-websit...