French lawmakers approved a plan on Tuesday to cut off Internet access to those who illegally download content.
The French National Assembly passed the bill by a vote of 296 to 223 and the measure will go before the Senate for final approval on Wednesday.
The legislation is one of the toughest ever drafted against Internet piracy around the world, it would penalize those who pirate music and movies by shutting down their Internet access for up to a year.
France Has The Third Largest Internet Population In Europe
In February, more than 35 million people in France accessed the Internet from a home or work computer, up 19 percent over the previous year, according to comScore.
French Internet users spent a combined total of 932 million hours online in February, an average of 27 hours per person. Instant messaging was the most popular activity with total share of time spent at 14.3 percent, followed by social networking at 5.7 percent. Together the two categories accounted for one out of every five minutes spent online during the month.
France, Sweden Top Europe In Blog, Internet Use
I’ve seen a lot of nationalities get insulted online, and no one seems to detect and respond to those insults as quickly as the French. Now I know why: according to a new Forrester Research study, young French Internet users are more likely than just about anyone else in Europe to visit a blog.
Google France Approaches 90 Percent Share
On the one hand, new data makes it surprising that Google doesn’t cater more to the French market. On the other hand, perhaps the search giant doesn’t need to – in France, it already has a market share of almost 90 percent.
YouTube France Coming June 19th?
Google will hold a Press Day in Paris on June 19th. Marissa Mayer and CEO Eric Schmidt will be there, among others, and we can expect they’ll bring some product or feature announcements with them (Tony Ruscoe will go to Paris to cover this for us, and I’ll be blogging from Germany). One of those new services, as rumor has it, will be the launch of European versions of YouTube, like YouTube France*.
Germany, France Join Crusade Against iTunes
Consumer groups from France and Germany have joined a European coalition aimed at forcing Apple to make files downloaded from its iTunes music store compatible with digital music players manufactured by competing companies.
Will France Surrender to Google?
Jacques Chirac isn’t experiencing a very good beginning to his new year. Data suggests that France is becoming even less relevant within the blogosphere, and now reports have surfaced that the nation’s joint search engine venture with Germany is about to go under.
Google Earth Rides Tour De France
The Google Earth application allows bicycling fans to follow the latest version of the legendary race from their computers, a much easier task than biking up the Pyrenees.
France Could Legalize Piracy Software
Not to the get into the intricacies of French lawmaking, I’ll defer to a source nearer to it (thanks ZDNet). French lawmakers have modified proposed legislation on digital rights management (DRM) that will make it legal for hackers to crack copyright protection and distribute the software at will.
iTunes Under Siege In France
Apple has made a tidy profit on its iPod music player, the only device that can accept music downloads directly from iTunes; the French government wants iTunes to be able to place music on any digital media player.