The French government, owners of film and music rights and Internet service providers joined an agreement which is intended as a firm stand against illicit downloads.
Service providers will take on the responsibility of constantly warning their customers not to download files illegally. The customers who choose not to respect those warning messages will have their accounts suspended or even closed.
On this issue, French president Nicolas Sarkozy warned about an increasingly harmed culture. He emphasized the danger of having the Internet in the near future turned into "a high-tech Far West, a lawless zone" where artists are the main victims.
It seems that the decision about when to send "electronic warning messages” to Internet users will be left in the care of an independent authority which, in its turn will be supervised by a judge.
Under the pact, film and music companies also assume the responsibility and obligation of making their works available online more rapidly and making sure that no technological hindrance will upset their customers (as, for example, those that make music tracks unreadable on certain platforms).
John Kennedy, head of the industry's trade body IFPI hailed the initiative as a strong, strategic move in the war against online piracy. He also acknowledged president Sarkozy’s determination, leadership and vision.
However, not everybody welcomed the deal signed on Friday in the same way – some French consumers' groups and politicians regard it as too restrictive. Such a group, UFC Que Choisir, protests against this measure as being too harsh and having unfortunate future consequences upon freedom, economy and the digital world.
Nevertheless, Sarkozy doesn’t seem willing to take any step backward—on contrary, he assures all illegal downloaders that if this "does not work well enough, we will take the measures to obtain results".
