The Liberty of Communication Act was introduced to place liability for the content of a web site on the individual posting it, rather than on the company which hosts the site. It has now been amended to avoid one of its most controversial provisions, namely the loss of anonymity for those publishing materials on-line.
The original terms of the proposed law said that content providers must acquire the accurate identities of those posting on the internet with their service. If the information was not accurate, both ISPs and users would have been legally responsible for the content.
Following pressure from civil liberty and internet interest groups, the French Senate has now amended the law such that ISPs are not legally required to confirm the identity of a person posting to the internet. The individual must complete an identification form, but this is already requested by almost all French hosting companies. However, the Act still requires ISPs to filter illegal content from their servers.