World's toughest anti-piracy law: French high court upholds three-strikes policy

The French are often caricatured as a bunch of laid-back bon vivants who hang out philosophizing about existence. But the French are dead serious about intellectual property rights -- and they're leading the world in draconian anti-piracy laws.

On Thursday, France's constitutional court approved a so-called three-strikes law which would call for the jailing of internet pirates. The court had rejected an earlier version of the law last spring. "France is acting as a spearhead," David El Sayegh, director general of the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique, the French music industry association, toldThe New York Times. "Piracy is not just a French problem, it is a global problem."