A French court has sentenced an internet user to 15 days without online access. The French digital minister recently commented that cutting off internet was “like cutting off their water”, and it would prove difficult to enforce.
The landmark ruling was issued at the end of May, and is likely
both the first and last time it will ever happen. An appeal
against the case is possible for the ten days after the ruling.
The sentence was first revealed by website PCInpact this week and
confirmed Friday by the government officials responsible for
administering the law. The individual in question remains
unnamed.
The ban was supplemented by a 600 euro fine, after the user was
convicted under a “three strikes” rule for repeatedly illegally
downloading material.
Despite the offender being cut off from the “public” web, he is
still able to access services deemed “essential” such as his
email.
The impossibility of such a filter being created was emphasized
by the president of Commission nationale de l'informatique et des
libertés (CNIL): “All the operators do not have the technical
capacity to carry out such a selective suspension,” said Alex
Türk.
French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti told PC Inpact that
the law ensuring a potential internet ban on repeated offenders
was close to being dissolved, with the likelihood that it would
be replaced by the imposition of fines.
The monitoring of illegal downloads will soon be transferred to
French media regulator CSA (Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel),
who are more inclined towards the financial penalty.
“In this day and age it's not possible to cut off someone’s
Internet access. It's like cutting off their water,” French
Digital Minister Fleur Pellerin said at a press conference in
Sweden last week.
Internet bans in the US have been repeatedly overturned, with a
2010 court stating that an internet ban imposed on a sex offender
was “substantively unreasonable” and “aggressively
interferes with the goal of rehabilitation,” according to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The European Court of Human Rights asserted the right of
individuals to access the internet in 2012, stating that it has
“now become one of the principal means of exercising the right
to freedom of expression and information.”