[A2k] Launch of a citizen initiative against the "Olivennes" law and other Internet-related regulatory proposals in France

[Philippe Aigrain]

A new societal initiative has been launched in France to oppose a number of
legislative and regulatory proposals with a strong adverse impact on Intern=
et
freedoms and capabilities. The initiative will also promote constructive
proposals to address issues such as gaining a better and independent
knowledge of the digital activities landscape, funding and rewarding
creations and added-value intermediaries, promoting diversity of effectivel=
y
accessible works, etc.

Among the present law proposals is the "Olivennes" law (named after the the
CEO of FNAC, a distribution chain with a for-pay download platform) that
proposed a new version of the 3-strikes approach (in French riposte gradu=
=C3=A9e)
where the first 2-steps is threatening people with accusations that they ca=
n
not fight against in court and the 3rd one is cutting their Internet access
and registering them in a file of people (actually households) excluded fro=
m
accessing the Internet. A similar proposal was just rejected by the Swedish
government as highly controversial in a time where Internet access is an
essential component of welfare.

The initiative's name is La quadrature du net (Squaring the Net) in referen=
ce
to the stubborness with which one absurd proposal is stacked after the othe=
rs
due to the narrow analysis frame that is used and to the bad governance of
policy preparation. La quadrature du net asks policy designers and makers t=
o
take the time of an open societal debate instead of trying to adopt its
present proposals as

The initiative website is at :
http://laquadrature.net
It has a limited English-speaking section.

Best,
--
Philippe Aigrain
http://paigrain.debatpublic.net