Two French senators want the liability regime for ISPs expanded with a fourth new category, the so-called 'service publisher' ('éditeurs de services'). This ISP would be in a cross between a traditional publisher and a hosting provider and is necessary to regulate web 2.0 platforms and auctions’ websites. 

In the report (loi n. 2007-1544 of 29 October 2007 de lutte contre la contrefaçon) Senators Béteille and Yung make a number of recommendations for better enforcement of intellectual property rights on the internet. Recommendation 12 of the report proposes a new, specific liability regime stricter than now applicable to hosting providers, but less stringent than that applicable to publishers. The senators propose to create a new category of ISPs, whose definition would not be based on technical criteria but on the economic advantage they draw from the direct consultation of hosted materials. 

Service publishers, according to the senators, should also have a simple warning system for rights holders and internet users to warn them about the presence of presumably illegal content. In addition, service publishers would have a surveillance obligation to set up all the necessary technical means to monitor hosted content.

Read more about the report in the critical blog of Catherine Jasserand of the Dutch Institute for Information Right (IViR) on KluwerCopyrightBlog. Jasserand for instance rightly points to the fact that such an adaptation of the French law is not possible without prior review and update of the eCommerce Directive at European level.