threestrikes
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'Pokémon Go' cheaters now get three strikes before a ban
In a post today, Niantic provided details on its new three-strike discipline policy for Pokémon Go players. In most cases, players found to be cheating will first get a warning through the Pokémon Go app and certain gameplay experiences may degraded for about a week. For example, that player may not be able to encounter rare Pokémon in the wild and could be excluded from receiving EX Raid Passes. The second strike will result in a temporary suspension that will last for approximately 30 days. If a player continues to cheat, the third and final strike will be a permanent ban.
France removes disconnection penalty from three-strikes anti-piracy law
The most contentious part of France's three-strikes law has been the suspension clause: one (alleged) piracy offense too many and you're cut off from the internet. The country is backing off from that aggressive policy with a new decree banning disconnections. From now on, judges can only issue fines after the third violation. The Hadopi agency created alongside the law is also going away, with the Higher Audiovisual Council taking over its duties. France's Minister of Culture and Communication, Aurélie Filippetti, explains the softened penalty as a matter of focus -- it's large-scale piracy that matters, she says. While some would question the need for any graduated system, we're glad that France at least sees the bigger picture on digital bootlegging. [Image credit: Fdecomite, Flickr]
France mulls extending piracy laws to include streaming and direct downloads
ISPs in the US are just getting around to enforcing a "six strikes" policy against illegal P2P sharing, but France is now contemplating a crackdown on the streaming and direct downloads of pirated content. Hadopi, the government organization behind the country's existing "three strikes" law, released a new report that proposes websites take a page from YouTube's book and actively monitor content by using recognition algorithms and the like to take down things that are presumed illegal. If a site weren't to cooperate after a round of warnings, it might face penalties including DNS and IP blocking, domain name seizures and even financial repercussions that involve having their accounts with "payment intermediaries" (think PayPal) suspended. As for enforcement of this potential government mandate, the dossier posits that it could lean on internet service providers instead of hosting services, which according to EU law, can't be forced to conduct widespread surveillance. For now, these suggestions aren't being made policy, but Hadopi is mulling them over. [Image credit: keith.bellvay, Flickr]
