The citizens of France suffered a great blow to their personal rights and freedoms today, as a new controversial ruling has been passed into law.

The bill passed is commonly referred to as a 'three strikes' law. It has been an idea that lobbyists representing media conglomerates have been pushing to pass in most countries of the West. Basically, if anyone is suspected of pirating anything, they are served a warning. If they are suspected three times, then the person suspected is banned from using the Internet for one year, in addition to the possibility of fines and a two year prison sentence. To make matters worse, the person suspected of piracy is not able to fully defend themselves legally -- there is no burden of proof that needs to be shown to indict the possible pirate.

In France's situation, the law also states that it is the burden of the user to secure their Internet connection. So, say for example you have an unsecured WiFi router in your home. If your neighbor accessed your router, and downloaded Britney Spears tracks from it, legally speaking, this would be your fault. This aspect of the situation invites the specter of abuse, unfortunately. Besides the case of your grandma's Internet cafe being unable to secure her WiFi connection correctly, and than maybe be charged with fines (without having any chance of legal defense), you could also really mess up someone's life by breaking into their WiFi router, and then transferring some Britney Spears songs, and then report them, causing them to be banned from the Internet, if it was their third suspected offense.

A slightly altered version of this law -- also championed as necessary by the representatives of the music and film industry -- was passed earlier this year. However the rule was challenged in the highest courts of France, and proved to be unconstitutional. Certainly the law will be challenged again. 

Generally it accepted that citizens should have the right to defend themselves in court. But here it is the mere suspicion of privately run corporate-sponsored entities that will be deciding who stays on the Internet, and who stays off. Lobbyists are working hard to have similar three-strike bills passed here in North America, and other democracies.

While lobbyists earn their livings by representing the corporations that hire them, those that challenge the legality of these laws will be people fighting not for pay, but instead, for what they believe in -- for what they believe is right. Public entities such as France's La Quadrature du Net support themselves by donations of time and money from concerned citizens. In North America, we have organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation. As it has always been, if fairness and rights are not fought for, they will be lost. 

Update: Earlier this news story erroneously reported that you could be banned from the Internet for life. Actually, the maximum amount of time you could be banned in France is one year. Sorry for the error.