After New Zealand, it is France’s turn to organize an Internet blackout, as France is considering the adoption of a law that would cut Internet service to people who are suspected (twice) of copyright infringement. I strongly believe, among many others, that this law is wrong, for many, many reasons.

However, there is one thing that bothers me. Operators are working constantly on new services to provide to their customers, making them more dependent on their basic Internet service. We may soon depend on our Internet service to get access to our alarm system, or to manage our various connected appliances. More importantly, our grandmother may use her Internet connection for her home monitoring program. Do we want her connection to be cut because her 15-year-old grandson downloaded a song using her connection? I don’t, but the law says yes. As Simon Phipps puts it, because their copyrights are worth more than our human rights.

Our government is not the best listener in the world, so demonstrating seems a good thing today, to make sure that our rights remain protected.