TF1 Fires Web Boss For Opposing ‘Three-Strikes’

Jérôme Bourreau-Guggenheim only wanted to express his concern about France’s proposed bill to warn and disconnect illegal downloaders. But the email TF1’s innovation manager sent to his local parliamentarian has now got him fired from the French commercial broadcaster.

Bourreau-Guggenheim emailed his local representative, a member of president Sarkozy’s ruling UMP, back in February, stating his opposition to the Creation Et L’Internet bill, which would create an agency, HADOPI, to warn, warn again, then disconnect ISP customers found freeloading. But the elected member passed his message on to the UMP’s culture minister (and the bill’s main proponent) Christine Albanel, who herself forwarded it to TF1’s senior management. Bourreau-Guggenheim was dismissed on April 16 for “strategic differences” with his employer, which supports the bill. Albanel’s ministry (via LePoint.fr) says it’s “shocked and alarmed”, calling TF1’s action an “overreaction”. Too late for the man concerned, who, after nearly a year in the job, updated his LinkedIn profile to read “(ex) head of innovation”. More at ArsTechnica, Liberation.

TF1 has been freaking out about piracy lately – it launched a nice, round