PARIS — A thousand French Internet users a day could be taken off-line following approval of President Nicolas Sarkozy’s pet project — an unprecedented law to cut the online connections of people who repeatedly pirate music and movies.
As the husband of supermodel-turned-pop star Carla Bruni and friend to powerful French media figures, Sarkozy has long basked in ties with the entertainment industry. But many say the government controls needed to enforce the law could pave the way for invasive state monitoring that violates privacy. And legal challenges could derail it.
Predictably, music, film and other industry groups have welcomed the measure.
Some Internet experts say the law will be technically impossible to apply. It requires Internet subscribers to install special software that would enable authorities to find and identify those suspected of illegal downloads, but some experts say such programs do not yet exist.
And because it denies accused pirates the chance to defend themselves before their Web connections are severed, legal experts say it will not stand up in court.
