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OT: French laws on data retention [was: We won't need Tor anymore]
> anybody who speaks German read this:
> http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/89086
My German is next to nonexistent, but I understand it's about the data
retention provisions of the so-called LCEN law (« law about trust in
digital economy »), more precisely Art. 6 of law 2004-575 dated 21 June 2004:
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/texteconsolide/PCEBX.htm
It's old news, unfortunately. These laws were voted in June 2004 by
both ruling conservative parties (UMP and UDF), while the Socialist
and Green parties voted against them.
(Aside: there is a growing suspicion of an alliance between the ruling
UMP party and media companies, something that would appear to be
confirmed with the forcing through parliament of the infamous DADVSI
laws in December 2005 through June 2006 by Christian Vanneste, Renaud
Donnedieu de Vabres and Michèle Alliot-Marie, the latter being most
probably our next prime minister. The position of the UDF party is
less clear, at least to me. Aside ends.)
According to our best-beloved government, LCEN is merely the
transposition into French law of the European directive 2000/31/CE.
The critics of the laws claim that LCEN goes beyond what the directive
requires, but this might bear veryfing.
The forthcoming electoral campaign for the French parliament might be
a good time to campaign for revising the LCEN law. (If you're
a French citizen, writing to your député or main opposition candidate
is definitely a good idea.)
> The first thing before anything will be that Tor is outlawed.
My understanding is that the data retention provisions of LCEN
(Art. 6.II) only apply to service providers (as defined in Art. 6.I
paragraphs 1 and 2), so it's not clear to me whether Tor servers are
covered.
On the other hand, Tor hidden services are clearly made illegal by
Art. 6.III. (Punishable by up to one year in jail and a E$65000 fine.)
Sorry for the off-topic post,
Juliusz