News

• European Union, France to consult on net neutrality

  The European Commission will launch a public consultation on the issue of network neutrality this quarter, Neelie Kroes, commissioner for the digital agenda, said Tuesday.

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  French net filtering plan moves forward

  French lawmakers voted Tuesday to approve a draft law to filter Internet traffic, a measure the government says is intended to catch child pornographers. The bill will now go on for a second and final reading.

• Computer hacking charge leveled against disgraced Tour de France cyclist

  Cyclist Floyd Landis, stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after a positive drug test, is now being labeled a computer hacker by France, which has issued a warrant for his arrest.

• French court fines eBay US$2.5 million

  A French court has fined eBay €1.7 million (US$2.5 million) for failing to comply with an earlier ruling that required the online retailer to prevent the sale of certain brands of perfume to French consumers on its sites.

• France creates new national IT security agency

  France has created a new national IT systems security agency to better defend its IT networks.

• Pirate Party finds France fertile territory

  Sweden's Pirate Party won 7.13 percent of the vote in elections earlier this month. Its campaign for the respect of privacy, the reform of copyright law and the abolition of the patent system earned it a seat in the European Parliament, and it may yet gain another seat there, if planned changes to the number of seats attributed to each country win approval.