Newsgroup Leads to Arrests in Paris

By Norman Barth

Paris Kiosque - May 1996 - Volume 3, Number 5
Copyright (c) 1996 Norman Barth - Used with permission

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Wednesday, 8 May 1996 - On Monday, French police arrested the directors of FranceNet and World-Net - two internet service providers in Paris - for diffusing Newsgroups containing child pornography. The arrests followed on the orders of an investigating magistrate, Judge Berkany. Although originally in detention, the two men are now free, but remain under judicial control (garde à vue).

As most of you know, the nearly 8000 Newsgroups are essentially discussions via email; the groups corresponding to different subjects of discussion. Newsgroup servers - nothing more than computers running particular (public domain) software - may be set up by anyone, anywhere, and at anytime, and are simply conduits for the discussion.

The question of who is responsibile for the content of the Newsgroup servers in France has - for now - been answered by Judge Berkany: the owners of the Newsgroup servers.

That said, there is confusion as to the choice of the two directors arrested when all of the internet service providers in Paris, including France Télécom owned by the state, maintain Newsgroup servers.

In the current tumult unleashed by the arrests, the Association of French Internet Professionals issued a press release in which they noted that the Ministère des Postes et des Télécommunications himself recently assured internet access providers that they couldn't be responsible for content which they did not produce, but which was to be found on the internet, and Lietenant-Colonel Browne, Commandant la SR de Paris admitted himself that the Newsgroup servers receive, stock, and distribute, but do not produce the Newsgroups.

In an act of solidarity, the AFIP press release may now be seen on the home pages of all French internet providers.

This is not the first time that the Internet has confounded existing juridic standards, and doubtless there will be more cases in the future. As things develop in Paris, we'll let you know what happens.

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Other Links

• AFIP Press Release
• World-Net Announcement
• We Are All Guilty - Metropole - Paris Online.