[Ecommerce] Soufron: French Judge refuses to shut down internet connections for p2p users

[Manon Ress]

Good news from France:

http://soufron.free.fr/soufron-spip/article.php3?id_article=3D78

French Judge refuses to shut down internet connections of P2P users.
Monday 17th January 2005. by Jean-Baptiste Soufron

French Court dismiss SCPP=92s claim to cut internet connections of P2P user=
.

Last December, the AFA (French ISP Association) announced that it had
been asked by the SCPP (the french RIAA directed by ) to cut 20 P2P
users from Internet.

Led by Vivendi Universal Music=92s Chairman Pascal Negre, the SCPP based
its claims on a recent french Internet Law called LCEN or =AB Loi Pour la
Confiance dans l=92Economie Num=E9rique =BB (Digital Economy Confidence Act=
)
whose article 8 allowed Courts to suspend any obviously illegal content.

Then, they went to court using special urgency procedures in order not
to face the P2P users they were targetting and to avoid the bad
publicity such a thing could bring to French Music Producers.

But the French Court refused to follow the SCPP.

Its decision from October 8th has just been revealed by the French FDI =AB
Forum des Droits sur l=92internet =BB (Forum of Rights on Internet) :

http://www.foruminternet.org/documents/jurisprudence/lire.phtml?id=3D838

http://www.foruminternet.org/telechargement/documents/tgi-par20041008.pdf

Instead of following the SCPP=92s requests, the Judge explained that there
were nothing in the case justifying the use of such procedures and that
the plaintiffs had to go throught the entire normal procedure. Copyright
infringements are never obvious enough to allow Courts to keep off
defense rights : =AB la SCPP ne pr=E9cise pas les raisons pour lesquelles
elle serait fond=E9e =E0 ne pas appeler les parties en cause =BB (the SCPP =
is
unable to give any reason why it would be authorized not to be
confronted with the parties to the case).

Then, the Judge adds an interesting argument limitating the scope of the
LCEN by stating that its article 8 does not allow Courts to cancel
contracts between ISP and users to cut them from internet, that it does
simply allow Courts to temporarily suspend access to litigious content :
=AB la mesure sollicit=E9e =E0 savoir la r=E9siliation d=92une convention
permettant l=92acc=E8s =E0 internet ne ressort pas de la comp=E9tence du ju=
ge
des requ=EAtes =BB (the request to cancel a contract providing an Internet
access is not in the power of this Court).

Pascal Negre=92s SCPP thus suffered 2 set-backs at a time. First, they
were denied the right to deal with ISP alone without the burden of a
real trail. And then, they offered a chance for the Courts to give a new
insight on the recent French Law to state that it must not be
interpretated as a tool to cut P2P users from Internet.

It=92s quite possible that the French SCPP will soon give it a new try but
it=92s good news until then.


--
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC PO Box 19367,
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