back to article French court says 'oui' on workplace smut

In a surprise ruling last month, France’s highest court – la Cour de Cassation – ruled that an employee was wrongly dismissed for downloading smut to their work PC. The employee, known only as "Monsieur X", was fired by Peugeot Citroën Automobiles in June 2002, after an internal investigation found that he had saved to hard …

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  1. Jimmy Floyd
    Grenade

    Union card, bruvva?

    Were it not for the militant socialism, as an employee I'd be tempted to move to France for the benefits implicit in every contract.

    As a business owner you'd be mad to create a company there. Or Italy, for similar reasons.

    1. Jerome 0
      Troll

      Militant socialism FTW

      Were it not for the militant socialism, you'd be tempted to take advantage of the effects of militant socialism?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Harassment?

    I can understand this being inappropriate conduct, if the employer deems it inappropriate that porn should be stored (or even accessed) on company computers.

    On the other hand how could it ever by harassment unless he waived it in his colleagues faces (or other places, in the case of enculade)? Doesn't harassment imply the deliberate involvement of another party? ("Come up and see my hard drive...")

    (Paris doesn't need the Playmobil example.)

  3. Sir Runcible Spoon
    Heart

    Sir

    Playmobil re-enactment or it didn't ha...oh.

    Still, the video was quite funny if a little sad at the end. I have no idea what they are saying, and I'm glad I'm wfh today as there are probably people in the office who speak French and would have understood all the 'ooh ooh' noises.

    I particularly liked the dialogue for the horse near the end :D

    What was the story about again?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Sensible

    Actually the final result is quite sensible as it takes into account that everyone has some personal life even while they are working - as long as it doesn't impact on their work performance. It should be a similar attitude to employees using their computers for on-line banking or using their phones to arrange holidays. The employer has no right to be a voyeur unless they have reason to believe that the personal stuff is getting in the way of work - too much chatting on the phone or facebooking.

  5. James 100
    Thumb Up

    "Harassment" absurdity

    The idea that downloading something in private is somehow automatically "harassment" of some unspecified person who wouldn't even be *aware* of it, let alone "harassed" by it, is simply absurd. It's wasting work time, in the same way that standing around gossiping or going out for a smoke would be; it's wasting company bandwidth, in the same way that downloading any other non-work content would be - but it is no more harassment than it is terrorism!

  6. Big Bear
    Black Helicopters

    That olde video

    Does that video contravene UK filth laws, and as I have watched it, does that mean the boys in blue will be knocking on my door anytime soon?

    Those stories of youtube being flooded by smut are true!

  7. Kev K
    WTF?

    Soooo..

    You work for me, you use my IT equipment and my bandwidth to download pr0n. Even though I have said you cant, but its okay as it is "personal".

    Hmmm. Not in my company sunshine, and you can put that in any language

    1. Richard 120

      Conversely

      You want me to work from home then you can pay for the bandwidth. It's surprising the amount of employers who think contracts only work in one direction.

      I think probably one of the points is that they didn't specifically say that downloading of porn is prohibited, just that he should "refrain from attacks on the personal dignity of their co-workers, and to exhibit the highest moral standards at all times"

      So unless one of his co-workers was photoshopped into the pics then he had to exhibit the highest moral standard, and as we know, studies have shown that basically everyone of age has seen/used porn so morally he's with the majority.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    El Reg and the Playmobil recreation

    Given the recent Animated Tiger case, sure El Reg's Playmobil recreations fall foul of the legislation ????

  9. Andy Livingstone

    Never Ending Story

    There are more than enough higher Courts in Europe to keep this going for a year or two until the entire Community has a common approach.

  10. A B 3
    FAIL

    Blood flow

    How you suppose to get work done when your brain is bloodflow deprived? Although there are certain workplaces that litter their office with centrefold girls.

    1. MadonnaC
      Flame

      Where?

      I would like to work ther.... Ooohh - you mean *pictures* of centerfild girls

  11. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    Fine by me...

    "You work for me, you use my IT equipment and my bandwidth to download pr0n. Even though I have said you cant, but its okay as it is "personal". "

    But they didn't say they couldn't download porn, they said "refrain from attacks on the personal dignity of their co-workers, and to exhibit the highest moral standards at all times". Downloading porn doesn't attack their co-workers dignity, and is not immoral.

    I don't own my IT equipment, but if I did, I wouldn't care what employees do with it as long as they are getting their work done and not trashing said equipment (I would NOT let Windows anywhere near my equipment so they would not require tight-fisted (ahem) admining to keep going.). Not that "no porn at work" is that strict a rule, but in general an employee that feels opressed will likely do the bare minimum, while a happy employee will likely be more productive. That is of course the crutch here -- they couldn't identify ANY lack of productivity on his part, and he didn't break any rules.

  12. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Up

    Vive la France!

    So whilst here we have the Nanny State telling us that "No, this is bad for you, you're not allowed to see it in case it makes you do something naughty" the French attitude is "what's the big deal?"

    Of course that Playmobil video clip (eat your heart out, El Reg!) would probably get you prosecuted for possession of Extreme Porn just as the guy with the "tiger" clip was, even though nobody could possibly consider it to be real...

  13. heyrick Silver badge
    Happy

    À chacun son goût...

    Incredible. Encroyable, even. Here we have an employer is not supposed to look at "private" files held on their own machines, yet we are at risk of total disconnection over the three-strikes law. This is madness. Really.

    It also implies that pornographic material is legal provided it isn't, you know, sick stuff like "think of the children!"... So, what can I say except screw music downloads, I'm off to get me some pr0n. :-)

    [come on now, you gotta love a country where that actually makes sense!]

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