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Deutsch: Französischer Senat stimmt Netzsperren zu
The French Senate adopted on 10 September 2010 the law on known as Loppsi 2 (Original title: loi d'orientation et de programmation pour la performance de la sécurité intérieure). This legislation would give the police the power to upload malware on PCs without the users' knowledge and without any need to explain the action.
Another extremely worrying aspect is that the Senate modified the deputies' version in the sense that article 4 of the text stipulates that the blocking of Internet sites with child pornographic content will is no longer be decided by the court but by an administrative authority without the intervention of a judge.
If the child pornographic content is manifest, the administrative authority will be able to ask ISPs to block the site address without delay. If that character is not manifest, the administrative authority may notify the legal authority in charge with the interdiction of the access to the mentioned electronic addresses, but is not bound to do so.
One partial victory was obtained in relation to video-surveillance by CNIL (French Data Protection Authority) which had asked that the control over the images be given to an independent body and not to an Internal Affairs Ministerial commission. Still, CNIL will have no autonomy in the matter as it will be able to intervene only at the request of the commissions that validates the installation of the video-cameras in public spaces.
The text also includes another article that stipulates a punishment of one year imprisonment and 15 000 euro fine for identity theft offences, a very large provision which may lead to punishing the use of pseudonyms or the use of profiles meant to caricature well known characters.
The text will still have to go through the National Assembly again in order to be finally adopted by the French Parliament.
Loppsi: filtering sites will be decided by the administration (only in
French, 13.09.2010)
http://www.01net.com/editorial/520854/loppsi-le-filtrage-des-sites-inc...
Freedom on the Net victims of the security debate (only in French,
16.09.2010)
http://fr.rsf.org/france-la-liberte-sur-le-net-victime-du-16-09-2010,3...
RWF criticises the filtering of the Net stipulated by Loppsi 2 (only in
French, 16.09.2010)
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2010/09/16/rsf-critique-le-...
The senators vote Loppsi 2 and say yes to filtering and police spyware (only
in French, 13.09.2010)
http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/les-senateurs-votent-la-loppsi-2-et-dis...
EDRi-gram: France's Parliament pursues its goal to censor the Internet
(24.02.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.4/loppsi-2-adopted-asamblee-natio...