France’s controversial ’three-strikes’ law, upheld Thursday as co...

which repeat digital infringers will be notified, warned and, in some cases, disconnected from Internet access up to a year. The Constitutional Council ruled the act unconstitutional in July, but the government tweaked several provisions, most of which passed muster in the latest challenge, said a spokesman for La Quadrature. The law may also be subject to attack in the European Court of Justice, he said. Chairman John Kennedy of the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry welcomed the decision, saying France has led the way in delivering effective copyright-protection measures and encouraging users to turn to licensed online music services. The Progress & Freedom Foundation’s Thomas Sydnor praised the measure as “another step forward for common sense and the rule of law on the Internet.” In the U.S., copyright owners must file a federal court complaint and spend thousands of dollars just to alert someone suspected of illegal file-sharing about the problem, he said. As a consumer, Sydnor said, he prefers the French system of successive warnings “to the sudden financial devastation of the John-Doe lawsuit that American law would now require.” He encouraged American ISPs and copyright owners to come up with a similar system.