France's 3-strikes law, also known as the Hadopi law, is to be revised. It's one of the first policy initiatives announced by the new French president, Fran?ois Hollande. But exactly what is planned for Hadopi is not yet clear. There will first be a consultation, and in the meantime the existing 3-strikes measures wll continue.

The Hadopi - the French public authority in charge of the 3-strikes measures - released statistics last week, claiming a massive success. Indeed, the figures for the apparent reduction in unauthorised copying have been praised by President Sarkozy himself. But analysis by the French newspaper Le Figaro, and the technology website Numerama, suggests that the numbers have been massaged to support the President's political position prior to the elections.

An update to French telecoms law mandates non-neutral, pro-copyright regulation of ISPs. And it's based on the Telecoms Package.

Over the summer, the French government has published its transposition of the Telecoms Package. The Sarkozy regime has used a controversial manipulation of the legislative process to get the transposition into law without going through the French Parliament. It includes provisions which

The most far-reaching web blocking proposals yet seen.

Today a French government committee is expected to pronounce an opinion on a new proposal to filter and block web content.

 The French media are suggesting that it represents industrial-scale filtering. Indeed, the proposal is the most far-reaching one we've seen to date.  It is certainly over-broad and puts at risk both freedom of expression and free trade.

The French government  proposes to  give various  ministries the power  to order ISPs and web hosts to block content.  Blocking orders  could apply to commercial and non-commercial content, and potentially also to advertising and search engines.

It is all set out in a Decree which amends the existing law on electronic commerce. The Decree has been sent to the  Conseil

'Paris in the Spring' gains a new and unromantic meaning as President Sarkozy plots Internet blocking discussions with other G8 heads of government. 

France's President Sarkozy, in Washington for  talks this week with Barack Obama, has said he wants to put an extra item on the agenda of the next G8 economic talks,  which he will host  in Paris this Spring.  That extra item is the Internet, and the meeting is being dubbed the ‘G8 du Web'.  

The idea is to have private,