French government decides against cutting off Internet access for alleged pirates

Good news for French Internet users: Illegally downloading the new Daft Punk album will no longer get your Internet service cut off. Ars Technica reports that the French government has decided to do away with a provision of an anti-piracy law that allowed regulators to cut off Internet service for users who have repeatedly ignored warnings against pirating copyrighted content. Ars notes that although the government never actually cut off any alleged pirates’ Internet services, it simply didn’t think that cutting off someone’s web access should even be a viable option. Fleur Pellerin, France’s digital minister, said that “it’s not possible to cut off someone’s Internet access” because “it’s like cutting off someone’s water.”