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French Intelligence Bill: 5 Web Hosting Providers Threaten To Leave the Country 105

Posted by samzenpus from the we're-out-of-here dept.
albert555 (3986073) writes Five popular French web hosting providers, including Gandi and OVH, said on Thursday that the new French intelligence bill might push them to leave the country (French) in order not to lose their customers. The five companies are protesting against the "real-time capture of data connection" and their analysis by the intelligence services using "+black boxes+ with blurred lines". The web hosting providers believe that this project "will not reach its goal and will potentially put every French citizen under surveillance, that will result in the destruction of a major segment of the economy of our country," by pushing their customers to turn to other less intrusive territories. If the bill is passed as it is, "we have to move our infrastructure, our investments and our employees where our customers want to work with us". The companies have provided a listing of dozen cities where they "will suppress jobs instead of creating new ones."; "These are thousands of jobs (...) that startups and large companies will also create elsewhere," they add. The press release was addressed to the French Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, and was co-signed by Gandu, OVH, IDS, Ikoula and Lomaco.
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French Intelligence Bill: 5 Web Hosting Providers Threaten To Leave the Country More

French Intelligence Bill: 5 Web Hosting Providers Threaten To Leave the Country

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  • Black Box [youtube.com] Blurred Lines [youtube.com].

    I think I prefer the former.

  • France is the new Muricka (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Soon there will be a Walmart in every town, a Starbucks on every street corner and the police will stop and frisk minorities with bullets.

  • It's only a democratic country because there can vote for the king, but the king choose the ministers and the ministers can do anything. The parliament is a joke to keep some credibility that some discussion exists. The citizen are left with there problems and never take seriously.

    • It's only a democratic country because there can vote for the king, but the king choose the ministers and the ministers can do anything. The parliament is a joke to keep some credibility that some discussion exists. The citizen are left with there problems and never take seriously.

      The french president have had a lot of power since thr 50s, but appointing the government (or administration as Americans put is) is alwsys the primary responsibility of the head of government. The same happens in all states. Prime ministers to presidents all do that.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jcdr ( 178250 )

        The same happens in all states. Prime ministers to presidents all do that.

        Not in Switzerland for example.

        Here the parliament (directly elected by the citizens) elect the Federal Council where each of this 7 members act as minister. There is no upper layer like prime minister or formal president (there is an annually elected president into the Federal Council, but this is strictly honorific without any added power). So each leading parties are fully represented in every politic layer up to the head of state, making a lot of conflict useless. The Federal Council is required to act

        • Elect yes. But appoint? No, how would a group appoint. The way it works in most countries is that the head of government appoints and the parliament approves.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jcdr ( 178250 )

            The citizens vote to elect the two parliament chambers members, representing proportionally the states and the peoples. Then the parliament (all members of the two chambers) vote to appoint the 7 Federal Council members. There can appoint any citizen of the country even it's not a candidate. As strange as it look like, yes this has happened: a citizen without high view on the politic can be boosted up to the highest level in a few hours. The main goal is to form a stable Federal Council with a proportional

            • The citizens vote to elect the two parliament chambers members, representing proportionally the states and the peoples. Then the parliament (all members of the two chambers) vote to appoint the 7 Federal Council members. There can appoint any citizen of the country even it's not a candidate. As strange as it look like, yes this has happened: a citizen without high view on the politic can be boosted up to the highest level in a few hours. The main goal is to form a stable Federal Council with a proportional diversity of the leading parties. Then 7 Federal Council members decide by them self there minister assignation between them.

              That is how democracy works. That is no different from any other country in Europe. You still need to get around the problem of selecting a person the parliament can vote on. They can't vote on everybody.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by jcdr ( 178250 )

                Not certain that you get the good picture, probably because that my explanation and my English are not good enough. The parliament can vote to appoint any citizen (almost everybody) as a member of the head of state (The Federal Council: the highest political level), even a citizen that have do nothing to be voted for. Maybe this URL is worth reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S... [wikipedia.org]

                But the main feature is that there vote 7 members, not just one, so this grant that all leading parties are represented up to t

        • I had to chuckle about your last sentence.

          That kind of optimism is rare.

          Also, unfortunately, totally unfounded.
          I live in Switzerland (but I'm not Swiss, so I can't vote (well, it turned out I can vote on things that my church puts up for vote) and the way things (esp. the tax-system) are set up here is very interesting. I'm not sure if a larger (population and land-area wise) state like the US or Germany (or even Russia) could be governed like Switzerland. But as nobody has tried, nobody can be sure it

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jcdr ( 178250 )

            The Swiss constitution was mainly setup after the civil war of 1847. At that time enough politics worked seriously together to compare various existing foreign constitutions. The French Revolution and the USA constitution played a major role in the redaction of the first text. The major Swiss ingredient was to introduce a proportional representation of the parties up to the head of state. A new version of the constitution adjusted many parameters and introduced the referendum, and the version just after int

  • Please (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Sunday April 12, 2015 @01:33PM (#49458003) Journal
    All nation's gov are monitoring the net. So many idiots scream about America, but the fact is, that all of Europe, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, India, etc have been caught monitoring data and lines. There are LOADS of enemies out there, and every nation's gov wants to know what is going on.

    If these host providers move anywhere on ANY LAND, they will be monitored. The ONLY way to avoid it, is to put your own sat network up there and beam down to others.

    • I think your bullshit is somewhat undercut by being under an article about another country considering doing what the US is doing, and you claim everyone does.

      • Re:Please (Score:5, Insightful)

        by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Sunday April 12, 2015 @02:13PM (#49458161) Journal
        They are NOT considering it. They are considering putting it on the books. There is a difference there. French gov already spies on everything that they can.

        • They are NOT considering it. They are considering putting it on the books. There is a difference there. French gov already spies on everything that they can.

          On their own citizens against their own laws. Then it would make no sense to change the laws.

          Also. You are making a strong claim.. Prove it.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dcw3 ( 649211 )

            Too lazy to google?

            http://www.globalpost.com/disp... [globalpost.com]
            http://www.theatlantic.com/int... [theatlantic.com]
            http://www.npr.org/2013/07/28/... [npr.org]

            • Good posting.

              What most ppl miss is that the 5-eyes and others actually do not spy on many at all.
              I suspect that they have unique capabilities to listen in, but not with humans, but with computers. As it is, there was far too many connections just in the cell world, let alone land lines, voip, etc. And that does not include all of the e-mail, IM, etc.
              Most likely NSA and others check things with computers, but only items which have a high probability of terrorism, criminal connections to ppl outside of

      • We have no historical reason WHATSOEVER to believe an all-encompassing ability to observe everything we do won't be abused by those in power to maintain their power.

        What's the matter with you people?!?!?

        • "Will be abused", it's a joke, a sacrasm, sigh.

        • They are probably born after 1989... hence oblivious to STASI and unable to recognize STASI v.2.0 for the New Millennium Reich as it rises.
          • Hmmm. I worked on USA PAT act in 2005-6. I was born in 1959, and had neighbors that had numbers tattooed on their arms. I heard stories from 1 family, while the other would never talk about: his eyes just got a dead look on them when I asked.

            The fact is, that there is a difference between spying on your own citizens in general, vs. spying on terrorists and traitors. It is a hard fine line to walk.

    • Re:Please (Score:5, Insightful)

      by houstonbofh ( 602064 ) on Sunday April 12, 2015 @02:26PM (#49458249)

      There are LOADS of enemies out there, and every nation's gov wants to know what is going on.

      Well of course. Once you consider your own citizens enemies, you end up with lots of them.

      • And who in the west, considers their own citizens to be enemies?
        • This is the future of American police: http://www.theatlantic.com/nat... [theatlantic.com]

          Key things to note from the article: 120 military grade surveillance cameras, 35 microphone systems, large and continuous police presence, military grade weapons. Some things not listed in this article: Fines are passed out to people seen walking in the same area multiple times for loitering. People are told to move along if seen sitting or standing on street corners. Anyone "suspicious" is stopped and questioned. All license plates
        • With all of the articles about veterans seeking treatment for insomnia having a swat raid the next day to take there guns, you ask this? With Stop and Frisk in New York, you ask this? With ALL of the articles on "what to watch for" including things like "supports the constitution," you have to ask this? Now this is all in the USA, but I am sure people other places have the same stories...

          So, to answer your question, Western Governments!
    • The real idiots are the ones who think it's okay just because everyone's doing it.
      • No, the idiots are the ones that do not realize that this has been going on since the 1800s, or that it will stop.
        What is needed is not to stop the spying on the digital comm, but to make sure that it is not abused.
        The NSA has GENERALLY, not abused things. However, when I worked on the PAT act back in 2005-6, and I saw the CONgress GOP stop the oversight, I KNEW that issues were going to come.
        The NSA has NO power. As such, they are not capable of abusing things.
        The real problem comes in when I hear

        • The government and its agencies should not have the ability to spy on Americans without a warrant – one that specifically describing the person(s) being targeted and the types of communications to be intercepted, issued by a judge in open non-secret court. This is the process the 4th amendment outlines, and this is at the core of peoples' objections to the NSA. Continually violating the law does not make it okay.

          I shouldn't have who I call and my call durations logged by the government, any more than

          • Oh, I forgot the most egregious violation: just because you got the information about Americans from Canada/UK/NZ or any other of the "five eyes" nations, doesn't mean the law no longer applies. You're still spying on your own citizens without any meaningful judicial oversight.

  • They can lay this crap on the service providers. Where are they going to go? And besides, the public keeps voting for it, indicating that the people who don't like it are a tiny minority, despite what the bullshit media polls will tell you.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Noryungi ( 70322 )

      Most people are against that kind of intrusion, especially if they are correctly informed about it. A lot of major newspapers in France have suddenly woken up and taken notice, as they are very much concerned they won't be able to protect their sources in the future.

      Ditto for lawyers and many other institutions.

      So there is hope after all...

  • OVH (Score:2)

    by Guspaz ( 556486 )

    There's plenty of room in their Beauharnois datacenter just outside of Montreal here in Canada, we'd be happy to have more of OVH's business here :)

  • As in https://www.gandi.net/ [gandi.net]. They have data centers in the US and Luxembourg in addition to France. They started out as a domain registrar in Paris, and now do quite a bit of Xen hosting business.
  • The organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed reservations on Tuesday 7 April; they believe the bill could open the back door to a surveillance society... aehm cough cough a little late to be giving comments like that, mentinks the barn door to that society is already wide open and people of the world who wish to be free are scrambling to close that door while the sheeple happily plod along in their own little happy world populated by the latest gossip about reality stars of no significance other that
  • The "socialist" french government does not give a s**t about its citizen's opinion, but it seems to be very vigilant about what corporations want.

  • 1 I assume they will not go to USA, UK, New Zealand, Australia, Canada; or Germany (who while not the sixth eye are very close to it; and have or other internatioal major countries.
    2. Perhaps to ? Let's have your guesses as they need to sell to paying customers

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