Hadopi and Privacy

In France, it is the Conseil Constitutionnel which has the power to rule on the conformity of the law with the Constitution. It examines the law after its vote by the Parliament, but before its promulgation. Pursuant to article 61 of the Constitution, only the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the President of the National Assembly or of the Senate, or 60 deputies or 60 senators have the power to take to initiative to ask the Conseil Constitutionnel to rule on constitutionality.

60 deputies have started this procedure on May 19, asking the Conseil Constitutionnel to rule that the Internet and Creation law is unconstitutional.

In point 3, the deputies points out the dangers for the privacy of the users that this law would entail. They point out that the way the law conciliates the protection of copyright and the protection of privacy is unbalanced. Indeed, in order to be able to strike users downloading illegally material protected by copyright, their activity on the web has to be monitored, including, according to the deputies, their email messages, considered private correspondence under French law. The law does not fix “clear and precise limits of the surveillance of the Internet that the law would imply.” The legislator has “to set limits on the technical used for monitoring the network in application of the law.”

The deputies are particularly concerned that the law does not explain clearly how the IP addresses of the users will be collected, even thought they will be collected by privates persons (article L.331-24 of the law.)