But by January 19th it was all over. Megaupload and all its sister companies were closed down in now-infamous raids and its French users – between them viewing nearly 97.5 million videos per month – had to make alternative arrangements.

According to a new report by Hadopi, the French agency tasked with administering the country’s 3 strikes anti-piracy strategy, many of them turned to authorized services.

Hadopi say they used data compiled by Médiamétrie/ Netratings on approximately 50 authorized video platforms. Stats were gathered from 22 free sites (excluding YouTube, Dailymotion and Vimeo), 12 TV ‘catch-up’ services, 12 premium VOD services and 4 other aggregators/portals.

Hadopi says the data, which was collected after Megaupload’s shutdown date of January 19th and ran to the end of the month, shows that overall the VOD, catchup TV and aggregator platforms enjoyed a significant 25.7% growth when compared to the weeks immediately prior to the site’s closure.

When broken down the aggregators and portals enjoyed the biggest uplift in visitors of some 85%, premium VOD second with 35%, followed by TV catchup services with a 25% increase.

The free streaming sites, on the other hand, suffered a 20% reduction in visitors during the same period.

According to reports by Numerama, last month French media outfit Canal + reported a 20% rise in sales on their VOD platform since the closure of Megaupload, with national TV channel TF1 reporting a 40% boost.

However, increases in traffic were not simply restricted to authorized content outlets. As already noted here on TorrentFreak, in the wake of the Megaupload closure many of the site’s competitors such as Rapidshare, Uploaded.to, Depositfiles and Hotfile, also enjoyed surges in traffic.

But as can be seen from the updated traffic graph above, while the first three hosters appear to have kept a decent proportion of the traffic initially gained, Hotfile’s traffic is already back to pre-January 19th levels. It will be very interesting to see if the short-term fortunes of the sites surveyed by Médiamétrie will show a similar trend to that demonstrated by Hotfile once the panic has subsided, or if they will maintain their new levels.

To get a better idea of the longer term consumer response to the Mega shutdown we will have to wait and see what figures Médiamétrie return for February, March and April. The closure of Mega on January 19th will have undoubtedly prompted a knee jerk reaction by users and flight to other services of all different shapes and sizes, but whether they stay put or move again remains to be seen.

According to the indictment against Megaupload there will now be at least hundreds of millions of dollars to be shared among ‘legitimate’ companies now Kim Dotcom’s company has gone. Whether the coffers of authorized video providers will benefit in line with the traffic increases suggested above is the really big question, and one yet to be answered.

Source: Megaupload Shutdown Boosted TV and VOD Services

Their so-called “three strikes” or “graduated response” scheme would see Internet account holders receive an official warning should their IP addresses be linked to uploads of infringing material on file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent.

Hadopi, the agency tasked with administering the system, started sending out the initial warnings in October 2010 and has periodically provided stats on how many first, second and third strike notices have been issued.

Using the latest available data, PC Inpact‘s Marc Rees has created some graphs showing the progression of the scheme since the delivery of those first warnings some 15 to 16 months ago.

The first chart above shows that as of November 2011, 736,000 “first strike” emails had been delivered to Internet subscribers. Hadopi president Marie-Françoise Marais previously reported that September had seen the agency send out its 650,000th notice.

Chart two shows the number of “second strike” notices sent to Internet subscribers. Rather than via email, these are delivered to individuals by traditional recorded delivery mail. The latest data shows that 62,000 of these notices were delivered to November 2011, up from just under 20,600 delivered by July 2011 and 44,000 by September 2011.

The third graphic shows the number of Internet account holders being held responsible for a total of three online copyright infringements. As of November 2011, 165 subscribers were on their third and final strike, up from 60 citizens two months earlier in September.

But the big question, however, is whether the warnings are causing the French to swap a file-sharing habit for one which involves spending money with official outlets. Next week the big labels will support a study which claims that is indeed happening.

According to Numerama, next Monday the IFPI will publish a study which will apparently show that during the last 18 months the Hadopi environment has led to a 22.5% increase in purchases from iTunes and an extra 13.8 million euros for the French market. We’ll certainly be taking a closer look at these figures when they become available.

In September 2011 it was revealed that Hadopi asked the French Ministry of Culture for 12 million euros to finance its operations in 2012. It was granted 11 million euros.

Source: 165 French File-Sharers Now On 3rd Strike, “iTunes Up 22.5%”

As witnessed through the recent media storms surrounding SOPA and PROTECT IP in the United States, proposed measures are becoming ever more drastic, often targeting the financial and business infrastructures of so-called rogue sites, the exact definition of which remains unclear.

According to their Hadopi anti-piracy agency, France will be the latest country to travel down a similar controversial route.

“The knowledge gained through the successful deployment of the flexible [3 strikes] response and technical, legal and economic experiments carried out by the Hadopi, today allow us to initiate a new stage in the protection of copyright on the Internet,” the agency said in an announcement.

Hadopi says that many sites have used the natural evolution of technologies to offer direct download (DDL) and streaming portals which “specialize in the massive exploitation of illegal content” from which huge profits are generated.

“It is now time to enter an active phase of struggle against this behavior,” says Hadopi.

What will now follow is a consultation period involving those likely to be affected by the strategy. These will include the cyberlocker and DDL sites themselves, Internet service providers, banking and payment providers, plus advertising networks.

The discussions will also investigate the limits of existing legislative tools and propose amendments should they be found lacking.

Guillaume Champeau of Numerama, a news site at the forefront of French online issues, informs TorrentFreak that Hadopi’s plans are currently unclear, but have serious potential. An existing provision in the so-called Hadopi law says that rights holders can get a judge to pass a ruling on emergency measures that can help to fight piracy.

“It is an extremely broad provision – the broadest I know in French law – which could lead to an infinity of measures: filtering, domain names foreclosures, payments prohibition, etc,” says Champeau.

“It has no limit but the imagination of rights holders, and does not require that the impacted websites defend themselves. So I guess it is very close to the Protect-IP Act. The Hadopi will probably push a slight rewriting of the law, so that it can go before the court to use this provision itself, when today it is only available only to rights holders.”

At this stage Hadopi are promising that the upcoming discussions will be “conducted in a transparent and open manner” and hopes to report significant progress on all matters by the end of the first quarter 2012.

Source: France Attacks Finances of Cyberlocker and Streaming Sites

TMG have the contract to carry out the monitoring of file-sharers as part of the French government’s enforcement of its ‘Hadopi’ 3-strikes regime. Given the politically sensitive nature of the work, the subsequent leak of information and software tools from TMG was all the more embarrassing.

In order to maintain confidence in the system, Commission Nationale de l’informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), the French authority responsible for ensuring that data privacy law is applied to the collection, handling, and use of personal data, were sent in to investigate the breach.

While CNIL investigated, TMG was forced to sever its online connections with the Hadopi agency. Instead, information on infringements was sent through the postal system on DVD.

According to Numerama, CNIL had given TMG until September 16th to get their systems in order. That deadline having passed, today CNIL made an announcement.

“On July 29th and September 13th 2011, TMG detailed the procedures implemented to improve the security of its information system,” said CNIL in a statement.

CNIL noted that since the changes carried out by TMG were “satisfactory” and met legal requirements, their investigation into the anti-piracy company is now over. TMG and Hadopi will now link back up online in order to transfer infringement data between them.

Despite TMG’s obvious shortcomings, at this stage they appear to have avoided public admonishment. However, rightsholders may now have to share some of the responsibility for the embarrassment and failures at TMG.

“In France, before rights holders can collect IP addresses of infringing users, they have to ask and obtain an approval from the CNIL,” Numerama’s Guillaume Champeau told TorrentFreak.

Guillaume says that in order to obtain this approval, the four rights holder organizations – SCPP, SPPF, ALPA, SACEM/SDRM – submitted an application in which they described the security measures TMG was forced to abide by.

“But it appears TMG did not abide by all of these requirements, and even the rights holders organizations did not. For instance, they said they would audit TMG every quarter, which they didn’t,” he adds.

“As these rights organizations are the ones who where directly in touch with the CNIL, as they are legally speaking ‘in charge of the collection’ of the IP addresses, they are the ones who may be found in violation of their pre-approval promises.”

Source: Government Concludes Investigation Following Anti-Piracy Data Breach

By early September 2011, ISP account holders on their first strike from Hadopi had swelled to 650,000, while those on their second numbered 44,000.

If Hadopi carry on at the current rate, by this time next year around one in 20 households in France will have received at least one warning, and it could be argued that most people will be aware of someone near to them having received one.

This kind of mass-awareness is a potential goldmine for scammers, and it hasn’t taken them long to swing into action.

Internet users have just started receiving emails which claim to be from Hadopi. The emails clearly state that the account holder in question is guilty of copyright infringement.

“Your internet access has been used to make available, reproduce or provide access to cultural works protected by copyright,” says the email.

“This use may have been made without your permission or without your knowledge, perhaps even by an untrained user. But in any case, as the holder of the subscription to the Internet, you are legally responsible for the use made of it,” it continues.

“You must ensure that your Internet access is not subject to misuse, taking every precaution to secure it. This is a legal requirement, sanctioned by the courts.”

The email then invites the user to follow a link where they are presented with the Hadopi website. Except it’s not, it’s a clever fake.

As noted by Marc Rees on PCInpact, genuine warnings contain “no clickable link, no proposal to purchase software, no request to pay a sum of money and no proposal to connect to a personalized space on the website.”

The fake page is sitting on the server of what appears to be a legitimate online store. They have almost certainly been hacked and are unaware of the problem.

The Hadopi imposter pulls in real pages from the official Hadopi resource when required so that users are drawn in by the apparent authenticity. The sting in the tail, however, comes from a custom page from where the scam takes place.

“To access your file please have the file number, access code and the confirmation code ready,” the page explains.

“To get the access code by SMS: Send CODE to 81083. For the confirmation code by SMS: send CODE to 81015. To get the access code by phone: call the following number: 0899 230 141. Confirmation code by phone: call the following number: 0899 230 148.”

Of course, these are premium numbers that could leave a nice dent in a caller’s cellphone account although we’re not about to call them to find out exactly how much. TorrentFreak discovered that these SMS numbers have previously been used for another scam where people are offered access to warez.

In another sign that the fake Hadopi page is indeed fake, the only link disabled is the one to the real Hadopi site which shows users how to detect if an email they received is a scam.

Update: The fake site has been taken down and the number has been blocked by the authorities, but will no doubt reappear on another compromised server with a new number in due course.

Source: Scammers Try To Trick Cash From Surprised ‘File-Sharers’

The so-called “three strikes” or graduated response scheme sees Internet users formally warned when they are monitored sharing copyrighted material online without the rightholder’s permission.

According to Hadopi, the authority setup to admínister the admonishments, everything is going to plan. Hadopi, it seems, have been very busy indeed.

Hadopi president Marie-Françoise Marais says that since the legislation’s inception 18 months ago, many hundreds of thousands of French file-sharers have been contacted by her organization.

The first warnings began to go out in October 2010 and by February 2011 nearly 471,000 Internet users had received one. Nearly 20,600 more stubborn account holders had already received their second.

Marais says that by early last month, 650,000 ISP account holders were on their ‘first strike’, a warning notification indicating that they are now on the first rung of the Hadopi ladder – and starting to run out of luck.

While some users would have changed their habits after this first warning, many did not. By early September 2011 some 44,000 ISP account holders were on their ‘second strike’, indicating that they did not take the first notification sufficiently seriously, or were willing to play out the three strikes game to its limits.

According to Marais, at least 60 ISP account holders ignored both the first and second warnings and are now in the final stages of the anti-piracy process. Punishments for them, should a judge agree, could amount to a 1,500 euro fine and internet disconnection of up to a month.

Source: 60 French ISP Account Holders On Their Third Strike For Internet Piracy

The judge will then review the case and hand down any one of a range of penalties, from fines through to disconnecting the Internet connection of the infringer.

This week the Hadopi office for the first time released official data on the massive anti-piracy effort. The scope of the operation is mind-boggling, but whether it will result in the desired outcome is yet to be seen.

Despite millions of file-sharers being tracked, France has yet to witness its first disconnection.

The Hadopi agency revealed that since October last year the IP-addresses of 18 Million file-sharers were reported by their ‘hacked‘ tracking partner Trident Media Guard. Of this massive list a randomly selected sample of one million IP-addresses was sent to the Internet providers to obtain further information on the subscribers, and 900,000 identities were returned.

This mass discovery process resulted in 470,000 first warning emails, which equals little over 50,000 per month. The number of people who received a second warning is currently stuck at 20,000 and only 10 Internet subscribers received a third warning.

According to the Hadopi agency these 10 cases are currently being investigated by a judge. These alleged offenders risk a fine of 1500 euros and could lose their Internet connection temporarily. Thus far, however, no French file-sharers have been disconnected.

As the results of France’s controversial three-strikes anti-piracy law are revealed, many people doubt whether the costs involved with the massive operation are justified.

Last month a report from the UN’s Human Rights Council labeled Internet access a human right, arguing that Hadopi is a disproportionate law that should be repealed. This assessment was supported by Reporters Without Borders recently.

“Aside from its practical omissions and shortcomings, the Hadopi law directly violates the principles of the defence of free expression by making it possible to disconnect people from the Internet. Its adoption was one of Reporters Without Borders’ reasons for adding France to the list of ‘countries under surveillance’ in its latest ‘Enemies of the Internet’ report,” the organization writes.

In addition to the human rights issues it is also highly questionable how significant the claimed deterrent effect of the disconnection threat is.

A recent survey by ZDNet.fr found that just 4% of file-sharers polled said they have stopped sourcing music from illegal services for fear of detection. Instead, many BitTorrent users simply turn to proxies and VPNs to conceal their identities.

Thus far, however, the French Government is determined to continue its war against piracy. Effective or not, the Hadopi office will continue to track down millions of French file-sharers each month in the hope that the tide turns in their favor.

Source: France Tracks Down 18 Million File-Sharers

As became evident, the term ‘hacked’ was probably overly generous to TMG, since according to Bluetouff the company had left the equivalent of its front door open.

“A virtual machine leaked a lot of information like scripts, p2p clients to generate fake peers, local physical addresses in the datacenter and even a password that could lead to a major global TMG security breach,” he explained.

TorrentFreak obtained and listed some of the files in question in our earlier report, but as the contents of the leak were examined in more detail, it became evident that TMG had not only leaked out its own data, but that belonging to the subjects of their monitoring.

The day after our report, Guillaume Champeau of Numerama, a publication which follows French file-sharing issues in-depth, contacted TorrentFreak to say he had been able to show that IP addresses linked to the 3-strikes process may also have been leaked. He informed the HADOPI agency of his find which led to them to report that they were taking the matter “very seriously”.

Indeed, that concern has been followed by an announcement from Eric Walter, the secretary-general of HADOPI. Walter, a friend of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who now confirms that “as a precaution Hadopi has decided to temporarily suspend its interconnection with TMG.”

What this effectively means is that since TMG is the only company licensed to do this work for the government, from now on and pending a review, the French 3 strikes regime for dealing with illicit file-sharing is suspended. Data gathered before Saturday evening, however, can still be used.

This suspension will be seen by some as a major embarrassment for President Sarkozy. France has taken a particularly hard-line approach to unlawful file-sharing and the government has continually brushed aside calls from the public and various watchdogs to consider more carefully the privacy and related rights issues connected with such a regime.

Update: According to French news sources the three strikes regime is set to continue, but data will not be transferred to Hadopi via the usual electronic transfers, but on physical media.

Source: French 3 Strikes Suspended Due To Anti-Piracy Security Alert

However, to get caught sharing copyright material, Internet users have to be monitored on file-sharing networks by the rights holders. The entertainment companies entrusted that spying job to Trident Media Guard (TMG) but during the last few hours, much to the amusement of opponents of France’s approach to enforcement, TMG has been hacked.

Actually, hacked is probably too strong a word, since it appears TMG left the front door open.

“A virtual machine leaked a lot of information like scripts, p2p clients to generate fake peers, local physical addresses in the datacenter and even a password that could lead to a major global TMG security breach,” French security researcher Olivier Laurelli, aka Bluetouff, just informed TorrentFreak.

TorrentFreak obtained copies of the files leaked from the TMG server (image above, cropped) and we’re in the process of trying work out exactly what they do which may take some time.

One of the files is an executable called ‘server_interface’ while there are also batch files which appear to start two file-sharing clients, eMule and Shareaza. These are likely to be special versions, probably modified for conducting both monitoring and spoofing on eD2K and BitTorrent networks respectively. The screenshot below (of code labelled ‘Poster’ in action) also appears to be connected to the publishing of fakes on file-sharing networks.

Another file – cmd_auto_update_cmd_file.txt – is the one carrying the worrying password referred to by Bluetouff earlier.

TMG’s security appears to be so low that Bluetouff suggests that either Christmas has come early for people wanting a poke around around an anti-piracy system or it’s some kind of weird honeypot.

TorrentFreak was also supplied with a list of IP addresses which pulled up some interesting web interfaces but we won’t publish those nor the leaked files for now.

“It’s a huge fail that could impact the graduated response (repression), during the next days,” Bluetouff concludes.

Source: French Hadopi “3 Strikes” Anti-Piracy Company Hacked

Today, another fail was added to the ever growing list. In what could easily be an April fools joke, but isn’t, the President of the French Pirate Party Paul Da Silva has revealed an interesting exploit he discovered on the Hadopi site.

To assist the public in finding authorized sources to download movies and music on the Internet, the Hadopi agency launched a new search engine on its site earlier this week. A useful feature, but also one that turned out to be very easy to exploit, Da Silva told TorrentFreak.

It took the Pirate Party President just 10 minutes to find an XSS vulnerability that replaced the Hadopi search engine with that of The Pirate Bay. As can be seen in the picture below the Hadopi site even featured Pirate Bay’s logo, the most recognizable pirate icon on the Internet.

This is not the first time da Silva has discovered a vulnerability in the Hadopi site – it was during October that he found the first embarrassing flaw. Through these actions Da Silva wants to illustrate that not even Hadopi is able to meet its own strict security standards. Under Hadopi, all Internet users have to secure their wireless connection or risk being disconnected entirely.

“For a while now we have been telling Members of Parliament and Hadopi employees that what they request from every French citizen is just impossible (securing their Internet connection). It would require them to be experts, and even if all of them were, we would still be facing the problem of IP spoofing,” Da Silva told TorrentFreak.

“They never bothered to listen to this, so I’m trying to prove them that even the Hadopi itself is not able to fulfill the level of security they request from citizens. It’s already the second time I spot this kind of vulnerability on their website, next time will be the third time and I guess we should cut their Internet if I were to find another one,” he adds, using Hadopi’s own “three-strikes” policy against them.

Although the vulnerability (which worked through this link) was fixed after a few hours, the Pirate Party President managed to make his point, and many French publications picked up the shameful error. The big question is whether it will change the antics of the Hadopi agency, whose threats thus far have had little effect on the piracy habits of the French public. We doubt it.

Source: Exploit Turns Anti-Piracy Agency Site Into The Pirate Bay

The figure is substantially below the requirements of the entertainment industries who had begun sending complaints to Hadopi at the rate of 25,000 per day in the hope that they would all be passed on. They weren’t, but that didn’t stop the submissions quickly reaching 50,000 per day. The total capacity is 70,000 per day.

The complaints bottleneck has continued, with magistrates involved in the process informing Le Figaro this week that since November Hadopi has been sending out warning emails at the rate of 2,000 per day.

This much lower rate was set for a reason. Ever since its inception critics have believed that the system would be prone to error and innocent people would be accused of offenses they didn’t commit. That may well prove to be the case, but by keeping the numbers down the error rate will stay low too, an essential requirement if people are to have confidence in the process.

Magistrates involved in the process say “It’s too early to conclude” if the emails will have the required long-term effect on recipients. However, they say that around 15% of those receiving these first warnings have actually responded to them by email.

The warning emails don’t currently mention the infringing material in question, so some responses request additional information on which files the warning refers to. According to Jacques Bille from the Court of Auditors, the omission is deliberate to avoid embarrassment, such as wives and girlfriends discovering their partners have downloaded something questionable.

While some warning recipients simply confess and swear not to do it again, others are reportedly making their excuses. Only time will tell if they have a case, and if that case is heard to their satisfaction as has been promised.

Next year its inevitable that the 2,000 emails being sent out daily will increase and according to Jacques Bille, with this comes a dilemma.

“Either we send out hordes of emails and be seen as horribly repressive,” he told Le Figaro, “or we are more cautious and we qualify as ineffective.”

In January 2011, things will step up a gear, with Hadopi sending out more emails and then letters by registered mail to repeat offenders. The promise is that repeat offenders face having their Internet disconnected. Quite when that will happen, 2011 or 2012, remains to be seen, but the entertainment industries want action, quickly.

Update: Guillaume Champeau from news outlet Numerama has been in touch to say that although French media including Le Figaro have been reporting that 100,000 warnings have been sent, Hadopi has in fact asked ISPs to identify 100,000 alleged infringers. The number of subsequent letters sent out has not yet been verified, but Guillaume believes the number to be lower than 100,000. According to new reports the number of emails lies between 20,000 and 25,000.

Source: Hadopi Sends 100,000 Warning Emails To Suspected Pirates

Sites such as Smartorrent are generally loved by the public, but they are also a thorn in the side of the French Government. In an effort to curb the growing number of BitTorrent users, France introduced controversial anti-piracy legislation this year.

Under the Hadopi anti-piracy law, alleged file-sharers will monitored, their IP-addresses recorded, and account holders will receive warnings through their ISP. After three warnings, subscribers risk a fine and their Internet connection may even be terminated.

Despite these tough measures, the French don’t seem to be holding back on their download habits just yet. Smartorrent traffic remains steady and the site’s users are increasingly looking for options to hide their identities from the prying eyes of the government.

To accommodate this growing demand, Smartorrent launched their own VPN service a few week weeks ago. The service – fittingly named SmartVPN – is specifically aimed at heavy BitTorrent users and shields them from receiving warning letters. Since their real IP-address is not shown while sharing, they don’t risk having their Internet connection terminated.

“Since the adoption of this new HADOPI law we thought about starting a VPN service,” Smartorrent co-founder Clever told TorrentFreak. “We wanted to give our beloved users the ability to keep downloading safely by using our VPN servers that are located in Canada.”

Thus far SmartVPN has been an overwhelming success. Clever told TorrentFreak that nearly 2,500 Smartorrent users have already signed up since they started in September, and dozens of new accounts are being made each day. The torrent site run VPN, which costs 5 euros a month, ironically owes much of its success to France’s anti-piracy law.

Clever further said that he doesn’t understand why the French Government voted for the tougher laws, and calls them “insane”. “In my point of view, they have more important things to take care of in France than hunting downloaders, as every week there is a strike somewhere,” he added.

The success of SmartVPN follows the global trend where file-sharers increasingly use anonymizing services to avoid being spied on. The SmartVPN service is mainly targeted at French users, but for people from other countries there are plenty of alternatives to torrent anonymously.

Source: Torrent Site Launches VPN to Counter France’s Anti-Piracy Law

Under France’s new Hadopi law, alleged copyright infringers will be hunted down systematically in an attempt to decrease piracy. Alleged offenders have to be identified by their Internet providers and they will be reported to a judge once they have received three warnings, of which the first were sent out recently.

Now that Sarkozy has got his way in France, the President is eager to conquer the rest of Europe with his draconian anti-piracy measures. To do so, he goes as far as hijacking an upcoming conference aimed at drafting clear rules against censorship and for freedom of expression on the Internet.

In a leaked letter that was exposed by the citizen advocacy group La Quadrature du Net, Sarkozy makes it clear that he has other plans for the conference that was initiated by the French and Dutch governments. The letter was sent by Sarkozy to the French Minister of Foreign affairs, and details how the conference can be used to promote France’s anti-piracy agenda.

According to Sarkozy, the October 29 conference offers an “opportunity to promote the balanced regulatory initiatives carried on by France during these past three years, and in particular the HADOPI law in the field of copyright, which has recently been supported by the European Parliament, as well as the measures taken to fight the new cybercrime phenomena.”

Not only does this letter show how far the French President is willing to go to spread his ideals, Sarkozy is also twisting the facts while doing so. The European Parliament has never openly supported Hadopi. Sarkozy is most likely referring to the recently passed Gallo report, but although that allows for more strict anti-piracy measures, it does not explicitly endorse three-strikes legislation.

The letter makes it apparent that Sarkozy is indifferent to the massive critique of his plans, and that’s he’s bold enough to use a conference that should strengthen freedom of expression online, to push his own agenda. A dangerous development according to his opposition.

“This international conference on freedom of expression could become the Trojan horse of Sarkozy and his friends’ repressive and obsolete vision of the Internet,” Jérémie Zimmermann, spokesperson for La Quadrature du Net said.

“This coarse manipulation of French diplomacy, disregarding our most fundamental values, is one more example of the alliance between the entertainment industries and a few politicians, who seek to control the public space to remain in power. There is now a huge risk that this repressive vision of the Internet spreads out to the rest of the world”, Zimmermann concluded.

Indeed, there is no doubt that the French President would rather protect the interests of the entertainment industry than the rights of European citizens. And he’s determined to succeed, whatever it takes.

Source: Leaked Letter Exposes Sarkozy’s Repressive Anti-Piracy Agenda

After three such incidences they will be reported to a judge who will be empowered to hand down a range of penalties, from fines right through to Internet disconnections.

The initial warnings, sent by Hadopi to alleged infringers via the country’s ISPs, have already started to go out.

“Attention, your internet connection has been used to commit legally-noted acts that could constitute a breach of the law,” they begin.

However, customers of one ISP won’t be receiving any, at least for now.

“The French ISP ‘Free’ decided not to send the warning letters to their subscribers, because the law does not mandate them to do so,” Guillaume Champeau, Editor of French news outlet Numerama told TorrentFreak this morning.

“The law says that it is the Hadopi which has to send the warning ‘for his own account and under its stamp, by electronic means, through the (ISPs)’. It never says how it should be sent ‘through the ISPs’.”

Furthermore, although ISPs have been given the job of identifying and matching up IP addresses with the alleged infringers’ personal details (on pain of 1,500 euros per day per IP fine for failing to do so), there are no penalties in place for not sending out warnings.

“The thing is, the HADOPI and most ISPs decided it was more convenient and secure to use the ISPs’ SMTP [mail] servers [for sending out warnings],” explained Guillaume.

“But ‘Free’ did not agree to Hadopi using its SMTP servers without a signed agreement, which apparently was refused, probably because they required payment or other forms of compensations.”

Of course, any ISP that does not send warnings to its customers could only become more popular with Internet users, so it’s no surprise that some ISPs are unhappy with Free for at least appearing to opt-out of the Hadopi process.

One ISP, Numericable, has sent a letter of complaint to Hadopi asking it to investigate Free on the basis that it could be seeking to achieve a competitive advantage from its stance. The ISP Orange also accused Free of “maintaining the image of a certain laxity”.

“Yesterday, the French Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand announced that the Government would issue a decree to sanction non-collaborating ISPs,” added Guillaume.

“But it is yet to be seen if it can be legally issued, since the law does not mandate any obligation for the ISPs to send the emails themselves.”

Nevertheless, although Free is not currently sending out warnings to its subscribers, it does not necessarily mean that they have not been issued. Time will tell how this plays out.

Source: French ISP Refuses to Send Out Hadopi File-Sharing Warnings

A judge will then review the case and hand down any one of a range of penalties, from fines through to disconnecting the Internet connection of the infringer.

The French anti-piracy outfit Trident Media Guard has been chosen by the entertainment industry to monitor and report illegal uploaders in France. The company, known globally for its pollution of BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks with fake data, recently started tracking down thousands of illicit file-sharers.

According to a report from PCINpact one of the major ISPs confirmed that the first batch of IP-addresses was submitted just a few days ago. This is the final step before alleged file-sharers receive warning letters.

The scope of the operation is mind boggling. The copyright holders will start relatively ‘slowly’ with 10,000 IP-addresses a day, but within weeks this number is expected to go up to 150,000 IP-addresses per day according to official reports.

The Internet providers will be tasked with identifying the alleged infringers’ names, addresses, emails and phone numbers. If they fail to do so within 8 days they risk a fine of 1,500 euros per day for every unidentified IP-address.

To put this into perspective, a United States judge ruled recently that the ISP Time Warner only has to give up 28 IP-addresses a month (< 1 per day) to copyright holders because of the immense workload the identifications would cause.

All the major French ISPs have to cooperate with the identification process, and the first 'victims' are expected to be disconnected or fined in a few months when they receive their third warning. At this point it is doubtful whether Hadopi will in fact decrease the piracy rate.

There are quite a few options for BitTorrent users to file-share anonymously, and other download options such as Usenet are not monitored at all.

Source: France Starts Reporting ‘Millions’ of File-Sharers

Last week saw French ISP Orange take the opportunity to start providing a service which, at least on the surface, is designed to put the minds of subscribers at rest. For a 2 euro per month payment, Orange is offering a service which “allows you to control the activity of computers connected to your internet line, from downloading ‘illegally’ using peer-to-peer networks. You can protect up to three computers connected to the same internet line.”

The software, which is Windows-only, runs in the background and utilizes a blacklist maintained and updated by Orange. Precisely what is on that blacklist remains a secret.

“Our solution is intended primarily for parents who want to make sure their children do nothing illegal on P2P networks,” the company said in a statement to French media last week while adding that just because the software is running, it doesn’t mean that users are fully protected against legal action under Hadopi.

History tells us that whenever a company gets involved in anti-piracy action, they leave themselves open to being probed. Several anti-piracy companies and groups have seen their systems examined and even hacked over the years, and Orange is no different.

Bluetouff has documented his findings on the Orange system and they are pretty surprising.

Using WireShark to sniff the output of the software on his location network, Bluetouff was able to identify an IP address used by the software to obtain its updates.

“The software communicates with a remote server, a Java servlet actually located on the ip 195.146.235.67,” he explains.

Nothing too out of the ordinary there – except that all information is not only being transmitted in the clear but all information on that server is public (via
http://195.146.235.67/status), meaning that every user had their IP addresses exposed to the public. But it doesn’t stop there.

Whoever set up the security on the server admin panel didn’t do a very good job. The username was set to ‘admin’ and the password set to ‘admin’ too. This morning that gaping hole was still open.

TorrentFreak is informed that people have accessed the server and have discovered that it’s possible to send malware to anyone using the software which makes a bit of a joke out of Orange when it claims: “The software runs in the background to ensure your safety without disrupting the important tasks that you perform”

“People don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Astrid Girardeau from TheInternets.fr told TorrentFreak. “Because it is a new Hadopi fail. And because, Christine Albanel, the ex-Minister of Culture, is now the executive of communication, for… Orange.”

Source: ISP Attempt To Block File-Sharing Ends in Epic Failure

Under the new law alleged copyright infringers will be reported to a judge once they have received three warnings. The judge will then review the case and hand down any one of a range of penalties, from fines through to severing the Internet connection of the infringer.

Proponents of the new law claimed that the law would convince millions of people to stop downloading copyrighted content through file-sharing networks. Most critics, however, doubted the effectiveness of the system and pointed out that there are many ways to circumvent the law.

A new study published by the University of Rennes shows that the critics are indeed right. The researchers looked into the habits of downloaders before and after the law was implemented. They found that instead of reducing piracy levels, the piracy rate actually went up by 3%.

This increase in piracy shows that the French are not changing their downloading habits much, despite the tougher legislation. There is, however, an interesting shift in the sources people use to download copyrighted movies and music. At an increasing rate the French are using streaming services along with file-hosting ‘cyberlockers’ such as Rapidshare and Megaupload.

These services are not covered by the Hadopi law and therefore ‘safe’ to use. Conversely, usage of P2P services such as BitTorrent dropped from 17.1 percent to 14.6 percent between September and December last year. Overall the research seems to suggest that the looming disconnection threat has changed how and where people get pirated content, while the piracy rate itself increased.

Another remarkable statistic uncovered by the researchers is that half of all P2P users who download copyrighted content also buy digital content online. This means that if these users were disconnected from the Internet under the new law, the music industry would lose customers and thus revenue.

The overall message put forward by the research seems to be that it is hard to deter people from copyright infringement when there are plenty of alternatives to bypass the legislation. This does not only hold for the French case but can also be applied to the UK and other countries where tougher anti-piracy laws are implemented.

The answer to the increasing piracy rates worldwide is not legislation. Instead, the entertainment industry may accomplish much more by innovating and expanding their online business so that it meets the demands of today’s digital consumers.

Source: Piracy Rises In France Despite Three Strikes Law

Under the new Hadopi law, alleged copyright infringers will be reported to a judge once they have received three warnings. The judge will then review the case and hand down any one of a range of penalties, from fines through to disconnecting the Internet connection of the infringer.

Trident Media Guard, the investigative company that will be responsible for tracking down alleged infringers, was presented to the public today. Interestingly enough this private company was not appointed by the government but by the entertainment industries, including the major record labels and movie studios.

Among file-sharers Trident Media Guard (TMG) is not a new name. In fact, thousands if not millions of people have run into them already as they are known to hinder illegal downloads by spreading fake data. For their ‘revolutionary’ anti-P2P technology they have submitted a patent application which is currently under review.

Aside from polluting file-sharing networks, the company will now also be responsible for tracking and reporting pirates to the authorities. TMG has the capacity to record up to 25,000 infringements a day, and according to initial estimates 10,000 offenders a day are expected to receive a warning.

TMG’s tracking technology will cover a wide range of file-sharing networks, with four of them being monitored as a priority. There is little doubt that BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella will be the major targets, but according to TMG it is also possible to monitor Rapidshare, newsgroups and streaming services.

How they will be able to monitor these non-P2P services remains a mystery for now, but it suggests some form of privacy invasion. Unlike with BitTorrent, a third party can’t simply see what a user is downloading as they do when they actively monitor a user’s P2P connections.

In the UK the ISP Virgin Media is trialling a technique which involves Deep Packet Inspection to monitor the level of illicit file-sharing across a percentage of its customer base.

Because systems like this are believed to breach the privacy of individual Internet users, the European Commission has been asked to review its legality.

Thus far no details have been published on the data gathering techniques of TMG, but considering the enormous opposition against the Hadopi law there is little doubt that their every move will be closely watched.

Source: BitTorrent Spammers Chosen to Spy On French Pirates

Late last week at a ceremony in Paris, Frédéric Mitterrand, French Minister of Culture and Communication, unveiled Hadopi’s new logo, the emblem which will help – at least as far as the government and copyright holders are concerned – strike fear into online pirates and force them to change their ways.

It soon became clear, however, that there was a fundamental problem with the design. The logo, already officially registered for 2 months with the National Institute of Industrial Property, had been created with an unlicensed font called “Bienvenue.”

This font was originally created by an employee of France Telecom in 2000, designer Jean-François Porchez. Writer Julien L from French news site Numerama told TorrentFreak that the problem goes even deeper.

“The problem is, this font was an ‘exclusive corporate typeface’. It couldn’t be used for other purposes than France Telecom/Orange products,” he told us.

The creator of the font confirmed that the ‘d’ and ‘p’ had been slightly modified and the rest of the font stretched slightly, but this wasn’t enough to class it as a new design.

Numerama contacted Plan Créatif, the agency which created the Hadopi logo, and they confirmed that ‘their’ font indeed violated the rights for the Bienvenue font, but that it was a mere “error of manipulation.”

Yesterday there was panic, as Hadopi tried to repair the damage by sourcing new matching fonts they could license legally.

Their design agency approached two British companies, Fontsmith and Jeremy Tankard Typography, to buy the ‘FS Lola’ and ‘Bliss’ fonts, and proceeded to hurriedly to license these fonts and recreate the logo.

Hadopi has issued an apology through gritted teeth, but while France Telecom-Orange has confirmed it won’t be taking legal action over the infringement of its rights, the same cannot yet be said of Jean-François Porchez. He has contacted his lawyer to see what can be done.

That’s one huge embarrassing first strike for you, Hadopi.

Source: French 3 Strikes Group Unveils Copyright Infringing Logo

When ‘caught’ uploading copyright works for the first time, the owner of the Internet connection used for the alleged infringement will receive an email warning. On allegations of a second offense, a physical letter will drop through the door. On the the third, the account holder will be summoned to appear before a judge who will have the power to fine, or even disconnect them from the Internet.

French senator Michel Thiolliere has told the BBC that the so-called Hadopi legislation will have the desired effect, with nearly everyone warned a second time abandoning illegal file-sharing for good.

“What we think is that after the first message… about two-thirds of the people (will) stop their illegal usages of the internet,” he explained

“After the second message more than 95% will finish with that bad usage.”

It is, however, much more likely that after getting a first warning, or even before, French Internet users will try to find a way round this system. They will discover that it’s surprisingly easy.

6 Ways Savvy Internet Users Will Neutralize Hadopi

Free options

MP3 Search Engines

One of the simplest ways to find music online is to use an MP3 search engine. That won’t be difficult as there are dozens to choose from. Sites like Skreemr, Songza, beeMP3, MP3Realm and AirMP3 are very simple to use and since there is no uploading, they drive a cart and horses through Hadopi. For those who don’t mind getting their hands dirty, Google offers similar functionality with their filetype: search operator.

Direct Downloads

During 2008 and 2009, the continued rise of blogs and forums that link to music, movies, tv shows and games stored on so-called cyberlocker sites was difficult to ignore. Although links can get taken down very quickly by copyright holders, they are often replaced just as swiftly by the communities that frequent such sites. The international music industry is particularly worried about the phenomenon, as tracking those that download from sites such as Rapidshare and MegaUpload is completely impractical.

Of course there are also perfectly legal alternatives, such as the excellent Jamendo.

Streaming Music and Video

While there are dozens of sites to visit directly, for those who really can’t be bothered to look any further and don’t mind closing a couple of slightly annoying popups, OVGuide is a huge portal to thousands of movies, TV shows and general video. With the assistance of the DivX plug-in, most content can be streamed directly in compatible web-browsers.

Music fans who don’t mind to stream tracks in their web browser actually have a few dozen legal alternatives. Grooveshark is one of the most elaborate music services. It holds more content than the average download store, supports playlists and it will roll out an iPhone app.

Premium options

Overseas MP3 Sites

Just over the English Channel from France lies the UK. Research carried out there recently by the BPI indicated that usage of MP3 pay sites had increased by 47%. While users do have to hand over money to use these services, at a tiny fraction of prices they would pay in their homeland they prove attractive to those on a tight budget.

Newsgroups

Using Usenet, or newsgroups as they are commonly known, is one of the most secure ways of downloading movies, TV shows, music and video games.

While the learning curve on Usenet is considered by many to be quite steep, once an individual discovers .NZB files – the .torrent of the newsgroup world – everything is hugely simplified. Within seconds of starting a transfer, the user’s connection will be completely maxed-out.

On a practical basis, and certainly as far as Hadopi is concerned, paying a few euros each month for a decent newsgroup account means that French citizens need never fear being disconnected from the Internet. Indeed, not even the first warning email will arrive.

Anonymous VPN

While the above options require that Internet users modify their behaviors, by spending a few euros a month on an anonymous VPN account they won’t have to change any of their habits at all. They can continue to use BitTorrent, eD2K or any other P2P method of file-sharing.

Once subscribed to a service such as Netherlands-based ItsHidden (who also offer a free, but speed-limited service), Hadopi file-sharing investigators will believe that the user behind that IP address is from another country and simply move on.

As the failed and now largely abandoned campaign against file-sharers in the United States proved, scare tactics simply don’t work. There are millions of file-sharers in France and many will simply carry on their activities in the belief that the odds of being caught are extremely slim.

And they would be absolutely right.

Source: Six Ways File-Sharers Will Neutralize 3 Strikes

However, none of this stopped the lobby groups, or the politicians looking to push for the ruling.

In the EU, the amendment, which would protect against 3-strikes laws by requiring due judicial process to occur before any sanction (such as cutting off Internet access), has been substantially watered down. Meanwhile, in France the Constitutional Court has ruled in favor of a slightly modified version of HADOPI – their legislation which includes a 3-strikes sanction.

On Tuesday, the Parliament gave up on Amendment 138, which had been voted on twice by the assembly, gaining a majority both times. The amendment was supposed to protect the rights of citizens from being treated as guilty upon the accusations of an industry group, and punished based on the same. It read;

Applying the principle that no restriction may be imposed on the fundamental rights and freedoms of end-users, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, notably in accordance with Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on freedom of expression and information, save when public security is threatened in which case the ruling may be subsequent.

Instead, they are now considering a version which does not guarantee the right to an effective and timely judicial review.

Christian Engstrom, the Pirate Party’s MEP, commented on the amendment in his blog. He included the differences in text that have been made since Tuesday (bold denotes added text, strike-through indicates removed) in a meeting between three negotiators for the European Parliament and representatives for the Council of Ministers.

The changes included the removal of the judicial guarantee, that any measures should come only after a fair an impartial procedure (and should now just ‘respect’ such things), and the ACTA-like inclusion of ‘National Security’ clauses.

He summarized things simply, saying: “It shows utter contempt for Parliament by totally ignoring everything it says. The Council plans to bypass Parliament and once and for all prove that it is they who make the decisions, end of story.”

Meanwhile, France’s highest Constitutional Court has approved a slightly modified version of HADOPI. While initially blocked last September, a change to require a judge to sign off on the disconnection action (rather than the Agency itself) has meant it passed the Court. However, such court measures will be ‘fast tracked’ rather than given full judicial process, a situation the New York Times describes as ‘similar to traffic violations’.

This has angered many, including (of course) the Pirate Party. Laurent Le Besnerais of the Parti Pirate and Pirate Party International called it “a huge blow for Internet Freedom.”

“In June 2009, this same Council declared that Internet access is a fundamental right which cannot be restricted without judicial process,” he told TorrentFreak. “Today, the council gives a judge the right and responsibility to pronounce a closure of Internet access to anyone suspected of having shared illegally. Furthermore, the suspect will have to prove his innocence, which creates a presumption of guilt.”

With the flip-flopping over these measures, it can only be seen as a greater boost for the European Pirate Parties in future elections. However, since much of the party works and draws its support online, there is the risk that members could start having their net connections cut off. With evidential standards so low, would it really be beyond the realms of possibility that political critics of these plans could end up being cut off at the say-so of those they oppose?

If all goes as planned the agency will be staffed next month, with letters starting in the new year, and terminations starting as soon as next summer. How long the law will stay once the innocent start being punished is harder to predict. As with IPRED, the people the law aims to deal with will just use seedboxes, VPNs, and open WiFi hotspots instead of their home connections.

Source: 3-Strikes For Pirates Makes European Comeback Tour

On July 8th, a modified version of the bill was accepted by the Senate following reassurances that any final decision to disconnect an Internet user under a 3 strikes regime would be handled by a judge.

Last week French legislators voted on this compromise bill. In the National Assembly it passed with 285 votes in favor and 225 votes against. This acceptance signaled the bill would move to the Senate for approval.

The bill, which has received strong support from President Nicolas Sarkozy and musican first lady Carla Bruni, was passed yesterday in the joint legislative committee of the two houses by 258 votes in favor to 131 against.

Under the law, once an individual has been warned about a third online copyright infringement, he or she will enter a mechanism which will see them reported to a judge. After a hearing the judge will have the power to cut the individual off from the Internet, and issue a range of other penalties including fines.

Reporters Without Borders referred to the legislation critically, saying it was “..alarmed that the alleged offender will not be given details of the illegal download when the disconnection order is issued. This recalls the censorship methods in force prior to the 1881 press freedom law, when the censor did not have to tell offenders why they were being censored.”

The bill now requires Nicolas Sarkozy’s signature to become law, but even this will face dissent.

The opposition Socialists, who were responsible for taking the earlier version of the law to the constitutional council, immediately announced that they will mount another challenge.

Source: French Opposition to Challenge 3 Strikes in Court

On July 8th, a modified version of the bill was accepted by the French Senate after assurances were made that the final decision of disconnection under a 3 strikes-style regime would be passed to a judge.

The new structure is suggested as follows. Once an individual has been warned about a third online copyright infringement, he or she will enter a mechanism which will see them reported to a judge. After a hearing the judge will have the power to cut the individual off from the Internet, issue a fine of up to 300,000 euros, or even hand out a 2 year jail sentence.

Furthermore, innocent ISP account holders who find themselves accused over the infringements of a 3rd party could be found guilty of “negligence”, risking a maximum 1,500 euro fine and a 4 week disconnection.

Today French legislators voted on the new compromise bill. In the National Assembly it passed with 225 votes against and 285 votes in favor. The bill (now known as Hadopi 2) will now move to the upper house (the Senate) for approval. It will then be signed into French law.

Source: France Passes New 3 Strikes Anti-Piracy Bill

A modified version of the bill, which passes the ultimate disconnection decision to a judge, was accepted July 8th by the French Senate.

Now, according to a report, the Ministry of Culture has decided that a company called Extelia – a subsidiary of the post office – will be made responsible for administering identification information and sanctions under the so-called Hadopi legislation.

Extelia will be responsible for processing the IP addresses provided by the rights holders and collecting subscriber information from ISPs. The company will then send out emails and letters advising allegedly infringing recipients of their obligations under the law. It will also manage the issuing of sanctions, the monitoring of their implementation and connection restoration following the dreaded 3rd strike.

Extelia will conduct a trial period of 10 to 12 months beginning this fall, to be financed by the Hadopi agency from its annual budget of 6.7 million euros (apprx $9.5m).

To begin, around 1000 semi-automated warning emails will be sent out per day, which is just one tenth of the proposed output when the scheme is up to speed.

The outfit that will actually carry out the monitoring of suspected infringers is yet to be decided. However, Marc Guez CEO of music collection society Civil Society of Phonographic Producers (SCPP) – which works with the likes of EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony BMG – said that two companies are in the running, Advestigo and TMG.

Lawmakers in the lower house of parliament will start debating today on the modified bill. However, the opposition Socialists are threatening to refer the bill back to the Constitutional Council after loading more than 700 amendments, apparently in an attempt to slow down parliamentary debate.

If the bill successfully passes the lower house, it will next be examined by lawmakers from both the upper and lower houses and submitted to a new vote in both houses of parliament, before eventually becoming law.

Source: 3 Strikes To Be Administered By Post Office Subsidiary

They had taken a similar stance to that of the European Parliament, deeming the proposed “3 strikes” regime for dealing with illicit file-sharers unconstitutional. They said that individuals must have a fair trial and striking an individual from the Internet is something only a judge can do after a hearing.

So now in modified form the bill is back. Moving the decision to disconnect file-sharers away from the Hadopi agency to the courts, the new version of the law addresses the objections of the Constitutional Council by presenting “3 strikes” cases to a judge, who will fast-track decisions in around 5 minutes per case.

The new structure is as follows. When an individual is warned about an infringement for a third time, the Hadopi agency will report the offender to a judge. After a hearing the judge will have the power to cut the individual off from the Internet, issue a fine of up to 300,000 euros, or even hand out a 2 year jail sentence.

ISP account holders who find themselves accused over the infringements of a 3rd party could be found guilty of “negligence”, risking a maximum 1,500 euro fine and a 4 week disconnection.

The revamped bill was adopted today by the French Senate and in the next few weeks will head to the National Assembly for its adoption.

Source: French Senate Adopts Revamped “3 Strikes” Anti-Piracy Bill

After condemning the wearing of burqas by Muslim women in France and labeling it a “sign of subservience,” he moved on to HADOPI – France’s controversial anti-piracy law which aimed to implement “3 Strikes” for alleged pirates.

Earlier this month the Constitutional Council, France’s highest legal authority, deemed Internet disconnections unconstitutional, and stopped the law.

Speaking to both the Senate and the National Assembly in a joint session at Versailles Palace just outside of Paris, Sarkozy was clearly undeterred. During a 45 minute speech, he turned to the issue of Internet piracy, stating;

“How can there be areas of lawlessness in areas of our society? How can one simultaneously claim that the economy is regulated but the Internet is not so? How can we accept that the rules that apply to society as a whole are not binding on the Internet?”

Sarkozy went on to say that by championing HADOPI, he’s not just protecting artists.

“By defending copyright I do not just defend artistic creation, I also defend my idea of a free society where everyone’s freedom is based on respect for the rights of others. I am also defending the future of our culture. It is the future of creation.”

In pressing for HADOPI, Sarkozy said he will “go all the way.”

Source: Sarkozy Says He Will “Go All The Way” With 3 Strikes

The law goes directly against a decision from the European Parliament, which concluded that disconnecting alleged copyright infringers would violate the fundamental rights and freedoms of Internet users. Despite public protest, the law was backed by a majority in the French parliament and was adopted quite easily last month.

Now, in an unforeseen turn of events the Constitutional Council, France’s highest legal authority, took a similar position as the European Parliament. They deemed the provision that would cause people to lose their Internet access unconstitutional, and stopped it. Instead, the entertainment industry is only allowed to send copyright infringement warnings, something they’ve already done in the past.

The role of the High Authority (Hadopi) is to warn the downloader that he has been spotted, but not to punish him,” the Council concluded, arguing that Internet access is a fundamental human right.

The ruling by the Constitutional Council said that people can only lose their Internet connection if a court rules that illegal sharing actually took place. This also addresses one of the most serious concerns of the public who feared that they might be disconnected based on erroneous evidence.

With the uproar caused in France by the “three strikes” law, and the earlier decision of the European Parliament it seems unlikely that other European countries will propose similar measures. Especially not with two Pirates sitting down in Brussels.

Source: Legal Authority Kills French Three-Strikes Law

Now, the leader of Spain’s Popular Party (Partido Popular), Mariano Rajoy, is warning Spaniards that Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) may try to implement a French-style “3 strikes” regime for alleged file-sharers.

At a rally held in the Prince Felipe Auditorium in Oviedo to promote the European Parliament elections, Rajoy raised questions over the tax currently paid by everyone on devices such as computers, hard drives, blank media, CDs and DVDs etc, which should be divided between all artists but is actually going mainly to the big ones.

On the ’3 strikes’ issue, Rajoy asked the gathered crowds if it would be acceptable to stop people from using the Internet because a government agency (at the behest of the entertainment industries) says so – is this what the young people want?

Rajoy is clearly against such punitive measures and announced that if Zapatero or anyone else tries to bring in something akin to Sarkozy’s ’3 Strikes’ HADOPI law, he will be strongly against it.

“If someone takes this decision,” he said, “we’ll oppose it and go to the courts.”

In response PSOE candidate for the European Parliament, Iratxe García, said that PSOE is an overwhelming supporter of Internet user’s rights.

“PSOE doesn’t support or accept measures or laws like the ones in France,” she said adding, “We are voting in favor of keeping telecommunication interventions in the hands of judges and not by any other administrative authority.”

Source: Political Leader Threatens Court Action Over P2P “3 Strikes”

The law goes much further than disconnecting alleged file-sharers though. In addition it is now possible to take “any action” in order to put a halt to copyright infringement. For example, websites can be blocked without having to provide hard evidence that they are engaging in illegal activities. The Pirate Bay has already been mentioned as one of the sites that could be easily taken out under the new law.

This afternoon the National Assembly passed HADOPI with 296 votes in favor and 233 against. The law was already supposed to have passed in early April, but at the time the Socialists block turned up unannounced, outnumbering the deputies from the UMP. The law will now be voted on in the Senate tomorrow after which it will be final.

As with most technical issues, the people who had to decide on the law have no clue about file-sharing at all. As we reported earlier, many of the politicians don’t know what BitTorrent is, or how it works. Yet they get to decide the fate of millions of Internet users.

HADOPI goes against the Telecoms Package of the European Parliament which aims to protect European citizens against such disproportionate legislation because it violates the rights and freedoms of Internet users. A few days ago HADOPI already claimed its first victim, the head of web innovation at the largest TV network in France who criticized the law in a letter to his MP. More victims are likely to follow in the months to come.

Update (May 13): The Senate passed the new law with 189 votes in favor and 14 against.

Source: France Passes “Three Strikes” Anti-Piracy Law

Today, a few hours before France is expected to pass “HADOPI” – their three-strikes legislation – a coalition of several British “creative industries” are calling on the UK government to implement similar measures. According to a BBC report, the entertainment industry lobbyists want the government to force ISPs to disconnect repeated copyright infringers, something the government has already said it does not want to do.

The coalition’s recommendations are accompanied by some impressive statistics for which no source can be found. They argue that a massive 50% of all Internet traffic can be attributed to piracy alone, and that despite the record breaking revenues for the movie industry and the ever growing revenue from digital music sales, many jobs may be lost because of it.

Whether or not jobs or profits are at stake, the major downside to implementing a “three strikes” policy is that the current state of evidence gathering is far from accurate. The BBC consumer show Watchdog revealed how easy it is to point the finger (and pull the plug) on the wrong person. The recent accusation that an elderly couple downloaded gay porn is just one example.

The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA) seems to agree and has said in a statement that the evidence used by the entertainment industries would not be “admissible as evidence in court.” On the other hand, disconnecting alleged file sharers without going though the courts is deemed unfavorable by a recent decision of the European Parliament, because it would violate the rights and freedoms of Internet users.

Nicholas Lansman, Secretary general of ISPA has a suggestion for the entertainment industry coalition though. “It is important to recognise that a major part of the solution lies in licensing reform and the availability of legal content online,” he said. Indeed, if anything, the widespread use of BitTorrent and other file-sharing networks to download infringing content is merely a sign of a failing industry. Disconnections will not improve the current business model.

Indeed, no amount of Internet user disconnections is going to solve the the piracy ‘problem’ either. If the UK government did agree to implement something like this and it led to the disconnection of say, 10,000 people there would be outcry. There would also still be another 5,990,000 people sharing files across Britain. There has to be another solution.

Source: UK Entertainment Industry Wants to Disconnect Pirates

While the general public is heavily against the new law, President Sarkozy has gathered enough support to get it signed into action. However, even before it’s officially adopted, heads are already rolling. The first victim’s name is Jérôme Bourreau-Guggenheim, who worked as head of web innovation at the largest TV network in France, TF1.

According to the Frech news outlet Ecrans it all started on February 19. Jérôme, like many other French citizens, decided to write an email to Françoise de Panafieu, his representative in the French Parliament in order to vent his personal opinion.

The topic of the email was “HADOPI” and Jérôme wrote, “I’ve read a lot on the subject because it concerns me. Firstly because it is my job, and secondly because I’m passionate about the web.” He then went on to explain why he believes implementing the law would be a disaster, urging the MP to vote against it.

In a democracy everyone is of course entitled to voice his or her opinion, but not in a demokarcy apparently. On 16 April, Jérôme Bourreau was fired citing “strong differences with the strategy” of TF1. So, his concerns with the new law were actually passed on to his employer by the MP.

Indeed, in the letter it was explained that the correspondence was received through the office of the Minister of Culture, who forwarded Jérôme’s email to TF1. “We consider this position as an act of opposition to the strategy of the TF1 group,” the letter read, stating that the passage of HADOPI was extremely important to the TV-network.

Jérôme has hired an attorney and will appeal his dismissal, since it’s discrimination based on political views, which has nothing to do with his work performance. The Ministry of Culture through which the email was leaked said it did not know how it ended up at TF1. However, the boss of the network is a good friend of President Sarkozy – that might ring some bells.

Source: TV Exec Fired for Opposing Anti-Piracy law

The new law has been criticized by the majority of the French public, with many of them believing it will fail to reduce piracy. After the parliament voted in favor of the law, no one doubted that it would be approved by the senate and National Assembly as well. As expected the law was indeed ratified by the senate this morning, but to everyone’s surprise it didn’t make it through the National Assembly.

After a two hour discussion, the law was rejected by the National Assembly with 21 votes against and 15 votes in favor. According to early reports, the Socialist deputies changed their initial position and decided to vote against the law after witnessing the mass opposition from the French public.

“There was a wind of revolt in the country, which engulfed the Assembly and made us move from opposition to the majority,” a Socialist member said in a response, adding “The government is now in trouble.” France’s Minister of Culture Christine Albanel was shocked by the rejection and said it was a “trap” set up by the Socialist opposition.

Unfortunately the law is not completely off the table. It is likely to be voted on again on April 27 according to members of UMP, one of the supporting parties. However, failing to get it passed through the National Assembly the first time is clearly a huge mistake that is almost amateurish, and public opinion is not likely to change anytime soon.

Last month the European Parliament indicated it was opposed to “3 strikes” legislation when it defined Internet access as a “fundamental freedom.”

Source: France Rejects 3 Strikes Anti-Piracy Law

The new ‘HADOPI’ (Creation and Internet) law introduces unlimited options for copyright holders to go after individuals and sites that are alleged to have infringed copyright, without having to actually prove that the accused are categorically guilty. Now, a new survey by French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) for LeJdd shows just how (un)popular this so-called ‘graduated response’ is with the public.

From a survey of 1004 individuals representative of the French Internet user, 60% of respondents said they were not in favor of the law (42% were strongly against), with a third saying they support it “somewhat”. Only those respondents over 65 years old showed greater support, with 53% in favor and 41% against. Despite this, 64% of the respondents in this category felt that the graduated response wont be affective at all.

Interestingly, there was no difference between the different age groups in the expected effectiveness of the new anti-piracy legislation. Overall, the majority responded quite negatively. Just 24% of respondents said that they felt the ‘graduated response’ would be “very” or “somewhat” effective, with a huge 69% believing it will fail.

As in most countries, illegal file-sharing is widespread in France. One in four of the respondents admitted that they downloaded copyrighted music or movies regularly. There is a clear generation gap here, as 40% of those younger than 30 years categorized themselves as active downloaders opposed to 6% in the 65 years and older group.

Not not everyone is sceptical of the scheme. While repeating the IFPI nonsense that 95% of all music is pirated, U2 manager Paul McGuiness writes that not only is the Creation and Internet law “the right solution to an enormous problem” but also “a fair and balanced solution” that “will work in practice.”

Clearly not everyone agrees. The full survey is available in French here (.pdf)

Source: French Anti-Piracy Law Doomed to Fail

One of the biggest problems with the new law is that copyright infringers will be identified only by an IP-address, which will undoubtedly lead to many false accusations. Those who want to prove their innocence have only one option, namely, to install a spyware application that will monitor their every move on the Internet and report it back to the authorities. Hardly practical.

The law goes much further than disconnecting alleged file-sharers though. In addition it is now possible to take “any action” in order to put a halt to copyright infringement. Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, explicitly named The Pirate Bay as one of the sites that could be easily blocked under the new law.

Thus, without having to provide evidence that a website is engaging in illegal activities, it can still be blocked. Potentially this could mean that access to BitTorrent sites is disallowed in France, as well as access to sites like YouTube or perhaps even Google.

In summary, the new law introduces unlimited options for the copyright holders to go after sites and people that may or may not infringe copyright, without having to actually proove that the accused are guilty. To date, this is by far the most aggressive and unbalanced piece of copyright legislation that we’ve seen.

Even more so, only last week the European Parliament spoke out against such disproportionate legislation by adopting a report that aims to protect the rights and freedoms of Internet users and excludes ‘three strikes’ as a punitive sanction. Unfortunately, members of the French parliament completely ignored this.

What struck us most is that the people who get to decide on these issues have no clue about file-sharing at all. Many of them don’t know what BitTorrent is, or how it works. Yet, they decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of Internet users.

Source: France to Block The Pirate Bay, Disconnect File-Sharers

In order to clamp down on piracy the French have proposed a new law that requires Internet service providers to cut off Internet access for persistent offenders. Under the new law ISPs have to warn alleged copyright infringers, and if they they ignore these warnings their Internet access is terminated for up to a year.

The public has actively opposed the law, claiming it restricts their freedom and privacy, while deeming the measure to be ineffective. In a recent poll 90% of the people spoke out against the legislation. Despite this protest, the law is backed by a majority in the French parliament and is expected to be adopted quite easily in the beginning of April.

However, do the politicians that will vote on the law have any clue what they are dealing with? Are they aware that the evidence gathering against alleged infringers is far from accurate, and that it’s not unusual for the wrong person to be accused? Or do they even know what BitTorrent is?

In order to test their knowledge on the subject, a reporter from Hebdo Cinéma questioned some of the politicians. They were asked what they thought was a bigger threat – BitTorrent or P2P. The results were quite revealing, and almost none of them could come up with the right answer.

Most politicians have simply no idea what they are talking about, with Herve Mariton commenting “It is beyond my skills, I admit.” Arnaud Montebourg used his trip to Washington as an excuse for not answering the complex question. “Give me a minute, because I am not aware of the details of the last amendments,” he added.

Patrick Ollier on the other hand, didn’t even understand what was said and asked the reporter to repeat the question in French. Maxime Gremetz’ response wasn’t any better, “I don’t know, I am not a technician,” he told the journalist. Interestingly, Georges Tron said that P2P was more of a threat than BitTorrent, although his explanation for it was utterly vague.

Claude Bartolone was the only one who made sense really. “From a technological point of view, I think the consequences would be the same,” he said, adding “From a consumer point of view it’s always more pleasant to listen to whatever you want whenever you want.”

The lack of knowledge demonstrated by these lawmakers signals a major problem. They are clueless about file-sharing technology and how it works, and oblivious to the potential negative consequences of the new law. Their main advisers are fed dubious and one-sided information from the entertainment industry, while the people on the streets seem to be ignored. Sad but true.

Source: Lawmakers Clueless About BitTorrent and P2P