The “three-strikes” saga continues in France following the Constitutional Council’s recent decision canceling the sanction side of the bill (Billboard.biz, June 10), with the government attempting to find a way around the legal ruling.

While the educational part of the bill, which allows the administrative authority Hadopi to issue warnings to infringers, had been passed into law, a short new bill on the sanction side of the anti-piracy system has now been approved by government ministers to be introduced as legislation.

The French government had wanted Hadopi to be able to cut off repeat offenders after two warnings. With the Constitutional council having stressed that only a judge can rule on such terminations of Internet access, the new bill intends to simplify procedures to avoid French courts, which would slow the sanction process.

Instead, a judge would be allowed to rule through an “ordonnance pénale” (penal order), a process that avoids a hearing involving the presence of the person accused of copyright infringement. Only in the case of an appeal would a court hearing take place.

Source: Billboard.biz

Police forces across the UK plan to pool their e-crime specialists to create regional cybercrime squads. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) said that that e-crime policing needed a “more consistent” approach.

Source: Out-Law.com

Since 2006, the Simonsen law firm - home of notorious pirate-chasing lawyer Espen Tøndel - has been in possession of a license from Norway’s data protection office which enables the outfit to monitor alleged pirates and collect their IP addresses.

But unfortunately for the firm it now has to stop this Internet surveillance, since the license was only temporary, has just expired and won’t be renewed.

Source: TorrentFreak.com

An Italian court on Tuesday postponed the trial against four Google executives accused of defamation and violating privacy for allowing a video to be posted online showing an autistic youth being abused.

All four deny wrongdoing. The case could set the tone for new limits on sharing videos and other content on the Web.

Google says the case violates EU rules by trying to place responsibility on providers for content uploaded by users.

Source: Associated Press

Yesterday from the Palace of Versailles, Nicolas Sarkozy became the first president to address Parliament in 150 years. He took the opportunity to show his determination over the proposed HADOPI legislation, promising that he will “go all the way” to enforce law on the Internet.

Source: TorrentFreak

A court has ruled that schoolchildren may rate their teachers online, rejecting the case of a woman who argued that her rights had been infringed by pupils who gave her bad grades on a popular website.

The rights of the woman, a teacher of German and religion, had not been compromised by the ratings and pupils had a right to offer an opinion as long as they did not hinder her professionally, the German Federal Court of Justice found.

Source: Times Online

Four Google executives are to appear before an Italian court tomorrow in a trial that could affect the future of online video-sharing services.

The trial, which has been delayed several times after it began February, relates to a video posted on Google’s Italian video sharing website in 2006 of four teenagers mocking a disabled classmate.

The video was viewed thousands of times over a two-month period before being removed by Google after the Italian government and police intervened.

After a two-year investigation, Italian authorities charged the four Google executives with failing to protect personal data.

Source: ComputerWeekly.com

The German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has adopted a new set of laws making it possible to block child pornography Web sites.

The legislation requires Web hosting companies to post “stop” signs when internet users try to access child pornography sites. The bill still has to go through several stages before it becomes law.

The motion has been the subject of a protest petition, with opponents claiming it is a first step towards Internet censorship. The petition has gathered 130,000 signatures calling for the bill to be scrapped.

Source: Deutsche Welle
via: Slashdot

The government said that it will back the Pan European Game Information system to help consumers make informed choices about video games, removing responsibility from the BBFC.

The announcement is one of a raft of new measures that will be introduced in the wake of the Digital Britain report. The government gave its backing to the enhanced video game PEGI classification system following a four-month consultation period, in which it sought the views and opinions of experts and consumers on the best way of amending the current classification process.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Germany is on the verge of censoring its Internet: The government – a grand coalition between the German social democrats and conservative party – seems united in its decision: On Thursday the parliament is to vote on the erection of an internet censorship architecture.

Source: netzpolitik.org