Pirates Face Crackdown Over Movie Downloads

French officials are proposing to cut off the broadband connections of people who illegally download films or music over the internet.

In the country's hardest crackdown yet on online filesharing, President Nicolas Sarkozy said that he was backing a "three strikes" policy against internet pirates, while simultaneously announcing a new deal with film and music companies which would see access to cultural offerings boosted on the web.

The scheme - which was drawn up following an independent review by Denis Olivennes, the head of a French entertainment retailer - involves plans to clamp down on piracy by sending offenders a series of email warnings. If ignored, the culprit could face having their broadband account suspended or even closed.

The new rules will also see entertainment companies drop all copyright protection on French material, meaning that any music or videos bought online can be played on any sort of computer or digital player, although it would also make the files easier to copy.

The move was hailed as a ground-breaking development, and in a speech yesterday, the French president welcomed the news: "Everywhere in the United States, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, professionals and governments have tried for years to find the 'grail' to fight the problem of internet piracy," he said.

"We are the first, in France, to form a big national alliance around concrete and effective proposals."

The deal was backed by more than 40 signatories, including France's finance, justice and culture ministers, internet service providers and the entertainment industry.

As part of the plans, the French film industry has also agreed to release DVDs more swiftly, moving the release date of DVDs from seven and a half months after their cinema screening to six months.

Some groups in France said the new scheme was unnecessary, since illegal downloading is already punishable by up to three years in prison. Opponents, including consumer groups and some politicians, fear the deal is too repressive and poses a threat to civil liberties.

Record labels and film studios, however, welcomed the proposals as the latest victory in their ongoing war with filesharers, who they blame for the decline of CD sales and cinema attendance. Many internet service providers, including those in the UK, already employ so-called "traffic shaping" techniques to reduce the activity of heavy downloaders.

Data for 2005 showed that as broadband penetration rose sharply in France to well above 20% of households, so did filesharing, while music sales fell dramatically by more than a quarter in the 2002-04 period, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).

John Kennedy, who heads the IFPI, the organization representing the recording industry worldwide, said: "This is the single most important initiative to help win the war on online piracy that we have seen so far."

He said Sarkozy had "recognized the importance that the creative industries play in contemporary western economies. The winners will be French music, French employees and French music fans ."