Scammers Sending Out Notices Pretending To Be From HADOPI, Demanding Money For Infringement

from the a-fine-fine-line dept

Fri, Sep 3rd 2010 5:57am — Mike Masnick

Earlier this year, we noted that scammers were copying the mass automated pre-settlement copyright infringement notices of law firms like ACS:Law and US Copyright Group, in order to get people to install malware on their computers. It appears that sort of effort is only expanding. With French President Sarkozy getting his wish for a three strikes law in France, the bureaucracy set up to deal with the resulting mess, Hadopi, is now trying to warn people around France that scammers have started sending out fake notices, pretending to be from Hadopi, demanding money for copyright infringement. Unfortunately, it's yet another unintended consequence of bad legislation.

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Filed Under: france, hadopi, scams

21 Comments

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:Lobo Santo (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 6:15am

What?
You mean some of the notices sent out WEREN'T from scammers??! I'm shocked, shocked I say!
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MarksAngel (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 6:17am

Oh my goodness IP Copyright being corrupted by a bunch of Money hungry thieves sending out letters just to see who will send them a check!?!?!?

Oh hold on this sounds strangely familiar....
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 7:17am

cant but agree with MarksAngel

but perhaps this isn't such a bad thing, maybe some1 will finally realize that it was a bad idea after all.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 7:20am

Interesting...
We talk a lot about people copying the work and business models of others, so this begs the question:

If a majority of people can't tell the difference between the scammers and Hadopi....does that make the argument that Hadopi is similar enough to be considered scammers themselves?
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R. Miles (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 7:22am

The Silver Lining
"Unfortunately, it's yet another unintended consequence of bad legislation."
But this will last only long enough until Sarkozy gets one of these illicit notifications and works to pass a law making it illegal to scam people...

...

...Nevermind. France is boned.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 7:33am

One more reason why the U.S. govt should have done something to stop these mass filings a long time ago. but of course, the U.S. govt allows them to continue and so the abuses continue to get worse and worse while other countries were wise enough try and deter them earlier on.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 7:42am

Re: The Silver Lining
The only way something will be done is if someone starts sending these mass notifications to high profile people with lots of money. Movie stars, politicians (Obama, senators, congressmen, etc...).

Of course the U.S. copyright group will never send these letters to such high profile people and if they accidentally do, upon discovering their mistake they will revoke the lawsuits to them. Someone else needs to and they need to pursue the lawsuit to its end. Any volunteers? Maybe the EFF can do it and they need to pick a district that they are most likely to win in (East Texas anyone? But that's patents, where do people normally sue for copyright?).

Of course, once high profile people get these letters the laws will change in a way that stops people from sending these legal threats to high profile people without preventing the U.S. copyright group from sending them to everyone else, but at least doing all this will bring more attention to the issue which may, in the long run, help correct the problem one day.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 7:47am

Re: Re: The Silver Lining
Also, think of all the money that these movie stars have, that money could become yours if you can get them to settle. Forget the U.S. copyright group and what they're doing, they're just sending these extortion letters to a bunch of people who can't pay much. Now, these celebrities can actually pay higher extortion fees. Think about it for a second.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 7:49am

Re: Re: Re: The Silver Lining
and while we're at it, lets massively send these things to a bunch of huge corporations as well, ones with tons of money. Can someone send one to the U.S. copyright group also. Many of them will just hand money to you to drop the suit, you can be rich!!!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 8:09am

hadopi not responsible for scammers
Scammers are everywhere, even in these comments. Scammers have been around much longer hadopi. One could just as easily say 'Scammers are an unintended consequence of techdirt allowing comments on its web site.' This is really an non-story.
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Free Capitalist (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 8:35am

Re: Interesting...
Looks like a criminal, acts like a criminal.. yep, that's definitely a government program.

Hand over your 401K and move along, nothing to see here.
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 9:48am

Re: What?
I guess he means professional scammers, as opposed to amateurs like the Hadopi.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 11:24am

Re: hadopi not responsible for scammers
And even with that knowledge at hand the french still passed a law that would expand the territory in which scammers could act, maybe the french government just didn't care about public safety enough.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 11:31am

Re: Re: Interesting...
What 401K?

There is no such a thing, even the government knows that.
The money supposedly collected in the citizens behalf was spend a long time ago, and they don't have a clue as how they will pay them back.

Just wait and see congress pass legislation reducing payouts for retiree's.

There is a very real possibility that people entering the job market place today will not be able to count on that retirement fund ever.

The government did what they do best, took the money and spend it all, and the public will have to foot the bill once again.
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Ron Rezendes (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 11:54am

I can't tell the difference - why pay anyone?
If the people can't tell the difference between the legal and the illegal scammers then why would anyone pay anything, ever? Once in front of a judge, your defense is: "I can't tell if I'm being scammed or not, but neither of these notices look legitimate to me so I kept my money rather than be the next unwitting victim."
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 12:26pm

Re: hadopi not responsible for scammers
A non-story, eh? Except that this "non-story" will be the next defense against Hadopi: "What? That letter was real? I thought that was a scam!"
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 3:34pm

Re: Re: Re: Interesting...
I don't think you know what a 401k is...
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 4:26pm

Re: Re: hadopi not responsible for scammers
Some people will be scammers no matter what. If there is a system then someone will scam/game the system. Following your logic we should just get rid of all systems, that way we can just get rid of all of the scammers. From the point of view of the people that passed the law the copyright infringement is a bigger problem than any possible scam. If it was that easy to foresee all the potential problems with a system then the world would have perfect systems, but there are no perfect systems. I don't agree with hadopi but someone scamming the system is not a great argument against it.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 4:28pm

Re: Re: hadopi not responsible for scammers
Well HADOPI is not about collecting money, its about disconnecting folks from the internet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HADOPI_law#Enforcement_method

It should be obvious that demands for money from HADOPI would be a scam. This is a non-story.
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Anonymous coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 10:15pm

I can't tell the difference - can you tell the difference.
Here's why none of this makes any sense to me. I can't tell if my copying is infringing. Sometimes I pay for my media, like I have a subscription with graboid.com, but even though I'm paying for it, I'm very suspicious that I'm not really paying the "right" companies, and that it's illegal. But I can't figure out any way to know for sure, until they're taken down, I guess. Another site I love is grooveshark.com - same thing, I've gotten thousands of songs there for about ten bucks total, can't be right. Now, there are many bands that I've found that give their music away. But how do I know the site I got it from is their "official" site, or just some fan site?

If they're going to take away my connection to my distant family, my kid's connection to their teacher, our health sites (which have probably saved one life in our house alone), and sabotage my career, then I want A LIST of what sites are legal and what are not. A LIST of what movies, books and music are actually free. A LIST of what I can and cannot do with the software that came with my computer which I use, for example to rip all my music from grooveshark.

Is that asking for too much, do you think?
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Sep 2010 @ 6:38am

Re: Re: Re: hadopi not responsible for scammers
"From the point of view of the people that passed the law the copyright infringement is a bigger problem than any possible scam."

The problem is that people who passed the law are themselves scammers and copyright itself is a scam.
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