Sarkozy’s digital agenda

Zdnet reports on a new initiative in France to tighten copyright protection over the Internet and prevent illegal downloading. The French president himself gave announcements that makes one think he’s on payroll of the music and film industry ("we run the risk of witnessing a genuine destruction of culture...")

The most dangerous and unprecedented aspect of this initiative is the union between the content industry and ISPs under governmental patronage and the forming of an extra-judicial body that would issue warning letter to users ("electronic warning messages"), have authority to punish them by blocking their Internet access, and encourage filtering and DRM deployment at the ISP level. I hope someone stops them on time.