France: Liberté, égalité, fraternité and Internet

Eric Pfanner reports to the New York Times that the French government is about to end its 3-strikes (see chart below; FAI=ISP) anti-piracy law, and shutdown Hadopi (see "French Copyright Law - 165 Cases Reached Court; File Sharing Declines" - here and "The French Internet Police: 100,000 Warring Emails have been Sent" - here), the agency that was responsible for its execution.

"Fleur Pellerin [pictured], the French minister in charge of Internet policy, said during a recent visit to a high-technology complex in Sweden that suspending Internet connections was incompatible with the French government’s hopes of spurring growth in the digital economy .. 'Today, it’s not possible to cut off Internet access,' she said. 'It’s something like cutting off water'".

See "French Appear Ready to Soften Law on Media Piracy" - here.

French Copyright Law - 165 Cases Reached Court; File Sharing Declines

I was following the French anti-piracy law for during last year, through stories on the government agency, Hadopi, that enforces the "3-strike" law (see background here).

A year ago Hadopi reported that it has sent 100,00 Emails ("1st strike" - here) and in last May it was reported that "France Hadopi - Shows Success (while working)" - here.

Another year passed, and while it seems that the copyright infringement is a smaller problem now (due to lots of legal content available at a reasonable price and quality and specifically to France, Hadopi activity), Hadopi continues to look for the bad guys, and filled 165 cases to court (i.e 3rd strike).

Eric Pfanner reports to the New York Times that "The agency that administers the three-strikes system, known by the French abbreviation Hadopi, had sent 822,000 warnings by e-mail to suspected offenders as of the end of December. Those were followed up by 68,000 second warnings, issued through registered mail. Of those, 165 cases have gone on to the third stage, under which the courts are authorized to impose fines of €1,500, or nearly $2,000, and to suspend Internet connections for a month"

" .. Éric Walter, the secretary general of Hadopi [pictured], said that the relatively low number of third-stage offenders showed that the system had succeeded .. A report commissioned by Hadopi, which has a budget of €11 million and employs 70 people, showed a sharp decline in file-sharing since the system was put in place".

See "Copyright Cheats Face the Music in France" - here.

Germany: 300,000 Copyright Infringements Disclosed Every Month

  

ECO, the German ISP Association, announced that German ISPs provides the details of 300,000 Internet users that are suspected of copyright infringements to the content owners every month.

Nevertheless, "Increased tracking and expansion of legal download services led to decreased the number of online pirates since 2008 by more than 20 percent ..  In parallel, the number of legal music downloads grew by more than 30 percent to 77.7 million in 2010" (see chart below).

See "300.000 Adressen pro Monat: erfolgreicher Kampf gegen illegale Downloads" (here, German).

Recently, France HADOPI also reported sucess in reducing piracy - see "France Hadopi - Shows Success (while working)" - here.

France Hadopi - Shows Success (while working)

 

2 interesting stories about France's HADOPI government agency responsible to IMPLMENT the Internet 3-strikes anti-piracy law (See "The French Internet Police: 100,000 Warring Emails have been Sent" - here) published by The Register.

First, it seems (or at least reported in the UK) that the French 3-strikes system works and supported by the public (!):

"[UK] Shadow culture minister Ivan Lewis [picture] has cited new research from France to support anti-piracy enforcement online. Lewis quoted research suggesting that 50 per cent of internet users state Hadopi prompts them to use more legal content and 41 per cent said it persuaded them to change their net habits, while 50 per cent supported the Three Strikes system".

See "Labour: France's pirate-bashing Hadopi laws work" - here.

However does the system work? Is it safe?:  "Eric Walter, France's secretary general of internet piracy, made the announcement over Twitter on Tuesday, saying that Hadopi, short for the High Authority for the dissemination of works and the protection of rights, was taking control of Trident Media Guard “following the leak of IP addresses.”

See "France's official P2P monitoring firm hacked" - here.

The French Internet Police: 100,000 Warring Emails have been Sent

   

The French press reports that HADOPI, the French "Internet Police", has sent 100,000 warning emails according to the 3-strikes copyright infringement policy (see HADOPI's "recommendations" process below).

See the article in Le Figaro - "L'Hadopi a mis en garde 100.000 internautes" - here (French) and a report in TorrentFreak - "Hadopi Sends 100,000 Warning Emails To Suspected Pirates" - here.

"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 ..  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."

Related links:

French Government: Google and Foreign OTTs to Pay for Networks Usage - here
Virgin Media - Throttles P2P but will not Inspect Content - here
Copyright Infringements: New Technology Identifies Pirated Video" - here.

Net Neutrality Train Next Stop: France (?)

 

The French regulator ARCEP (Autorité de Régulation des Communications Electroniques et des Postes) will convene on April 13 to discuss Network Neutrality (see press release - here - English !!).

In the video interview below, (French), the Chairman, Jean-Ludovic Silicani, says that it is an important subject, world-wide, and explains the ideas behind Neutrality for fixed and mobile networks, customers, carriers and content providers.

The agenda is here.

Note the participation of Tim Wu, one of the Net-Neutrality promoters. See Tim's "Network Neutrality FAQ" (here) - where he tries to define Neutrality; this is used by many as a reference model and the legal foundation for Net Neutrality

We can also see that HADOPI, that deals with copy-right protection (the 3-strikes law), a high profile issue in France. While it is referred to in the FCC Net Neutrality guidelines (FCC protects "legal traffic" only) - it seems that in the French case it will get special attention.