French ISP 'Free' Refusing To Send Out Hadopi Notices To Users [Updated]

from the but-does-that-still-count? dept

At the beginning of September, we noted that some French ISPs had indicated that, as the French three strikes process began, with the Hadopi agency sending out its tens of thousands of "first strike" notices, they would ignore the requests. It appears that may be happening. Apparently the French ISP "Free" (which, as I discovered last time I was in France and tried to connect to its WiFi, is not actually free) has decided that it will not pass along the warning notices to users:

"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.

"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."

The TorrentFreak article notes that other ISPs are complaining that Free is doing this to gain a competitive advantage with customers, but I'm not sure I buy that. After all, it doesn't sound like Free isn't handing over the users' personal info. They're just not letting users know about it. If anything, that could make Free seem worse to users, in that it's handing their info over to Hadopi for the purpose of the three strikes program, but not letting the users know that they have any strikes.

Update: Guillaume Champeau, who originally reported this story explains further in the comments:

The Hadopi law says that in order to face penalties before the court, Internet suscribers must have received at a least one previous warning by paper mail. - It also says that in order to send this paper mail, the HADOPI must have been noticed of new infrigements which must have occured within 6 months after an e-mail was sent. - Therefore, if the e-mail was never sent, no paper mail can be sent either, and the users can't face penalties. Currently the law does not mandate an ISP to send the e-mails. But it does mandate them to hand out personal infos.

So, it sounds like this does protect users, via a bit of a loophole in the Hadopi law. Even if Hadopi sends out the personal info, if the email isn't sent, then Hadopi can't take the person to court, and Free has no obligation under the law to actually send the email.

Filed Under: france, hadopi, three strikes
Companies: free

Leaked Report Admits That Hadopi First Strike Accusations Won't Be Reviewed For Accuracy

from the accuse-away! dept

As the French "three strikes" Hadopi process begins, with tens of thousands of notices being sent out to accused file sharers (their "first strike"), things may be even more ridiculous than previously assumed. Guillaume Champeau fills us in on the details of a leaked report from the French privacy commissioner (Google translation from the original French). Basically, the privacy commissioner CNIL admits that, due to the number of notices being sent, Hadopi will simply not be able to review the accusations for accuracy, and will need to accept the claims from TMG, the company hired by the entertainment industry to accuse people. Here's Champeau's summary:

"Rights holders have been authorized in June to collect IP addresses on P2P networks, by recruiting the services of the French company TMG. It will monitor P2P networks, store the IP addresses it believes illegally shares copyrighted works, and their rights holder customers will forward the ones they want to the French HADOPI.

Early this week, an internal report by the CNIL was leaked. The CNIL is the Privacy Commissioner in France. It is the Commission which has allowed rights holders to use the TMG services and collect IP addresses.

The report says that "due to the high number of expected cases (25 000 a day at first, then 150 000 a day), it is impossible for the [right holders' agents] to check the [infringement] reports one by one. Nonetheless, the system does not have particular control procedures, for instance by sampling, which would allow an agent to detect anomalies in a collection session".

It says that "the actions of the Hadopi will be limited to accepting or denying the transmitted findings, without the ability to check them. The first steps of the "three strikes" process will therefore lay only upon the collection operated by the TMG system".

Despite these concerns, the CNIL did authorize the right holders to collect the IP addresses, and did not oppose the 3 strikes process by the Hadopi.

Read that bold part carefully. What this is saying is that despite the fact that you can be kicked off the internet based solely on accusations, not convictions, and despite all of the problems with false accusations and the fact that an IP address alone does not accurately identify an individual, and despite the fact that the massive number of notices being sent out mean that there will surely be false positives, the only people reviewing these notices to make sure they're accurate will be employed by the agent hired by the copyright holders themselves. Due process? It's dead.

Filed Under: france, hadopi, oversight, review, three strikes
Companies: tmg

Hadopi Begins Issuing Tens Of Thousands Of 'Notices' For Infringement In France

from the begin-the-takedowns dept

Almost a year after the law officially went into effect, the French Hadopi organization, which is responsible for managing the "three strikes" process to kick file sharers offline after three accusations (not convictions) of unauthorized file sharing, has started sending out notices. Initially, it's sending out approximately 10,000 per day, with plans to ramp up to 50,000 per day. Already overburdened ISPs will be responsible for handing over the info on those accused within eight days, or they could get fined 1,500 euros per day per IP address. That could add up quickly. Some ISPs have threatened to ignore or fight the demands for info, but it's unclear if any ISP is willing to stand up to that kind of liability...

Filed Under: france, hadopi, isps

French Culture Minister Caught 'Pirating' Photo Off Of Website

from the copyright-ain't-so-cut-and-dried dept

We've noted in the past how it seems that those in favor of stronger copyright laws almost always seem to end up getting caught violating copyright rules in some manner or another -- often showing that they don't really understand why their push for stricter laws are so problematic. In France, where the current ruling party pushed through (at great effort) the first "three strikes" law, known as Hadopi, it seems that the party has a particular problem with following copyright law itself. This is the same political party that used a song in an (awful) lip dub that it did not license (in fact they were turned down when they tried to license it -- so it was willful infringement). They used the US band MGMT's song in a video totally without permission, and they mass "pirated" a documentary about President Sarkozy without permission from the filmmaker. In that case, they burned 400 DVDs without permission, and even deleted the original publisher's name on the version of the DVD they released.

So the following really shouldn't come as much surprise. Apparently the French culture minister, who (of course) was a major supporter of Hadopi, has been caught copying a photo from a blog entirely without permission (Google translation of the original French -- found via Glyn Moody).

The blogger claims they'd be happy to let the Culture Minister use the photo, but just wanted to point out how it's easy to grandstand and claim that copyright infringement is some awful thing, but situations like this show how it's really not so clearcut -- and even those who claim that copyright is so important and must be protected (with a potential penalty of losing internet access entirely) don't even realize how easy it is to "innocently" infringe on copyright while doing something that feels completely normal.

Filed Under: copyright, culture minister, france, hadopi

French ISPs Pushing Back Against Hadopi; Threaten To Ignore Requests

from the like-you-didn't-see-this-coming dept

This should hardly come as a surprise, but as the French "three strikes" agency Hadopi tries to push forward, it's facing some serious resistance from French ISPs, who might out-and-out ignore the law's requirements in a boycott against the plan. The main issue, of course, is that they feel that the law puts too big an expense on them, without adequate compensation for the work. Basically, the government is asking them to be under-paid police for the entertainment industry. The ISPs are asking for greater compensation to play that role, and if they don't get it, are apparently willing to fight the overall law in court. It seems that, after years of fighting to get the law passed, the French government still might not be over the final hurdle to kicking people off the internet for file sharing.

Filed Under: france, hadopi, isps

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

from the a-fine-fine-line dept

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.

Filed Under: france, hadopi, scams

Another Embarassment For French 'Three Strikes' Agency... As Someone Beats Them To Filing For Trademark

from the so-easy-to-infringe-these-days dept

Earlier this year, we noted that the French government organization put in charge of enforcing the new "three strikes" law in the country, Hadopi, had used an unauthorized font in creating its logo. The organization also got in some hot water over leaked plans for ways to monitor users. The latest, as pointed out by Glyn Moody, is that someone else beat the organization to apply for a trademark on "Hadopi." The article seems to suggest that this guy who applied first is likely to get it, but that doesn't make much sense to me. At least in the US, you need to actually use the trademark in commerce to be eligible for it, and it's not clear this guy is doing anything at all with Hadopi. On top of that, there's such a thing as common law trademarks for those who used the mark first -- but, again, I'm not quite sure how that works in France. Any European trademark lawyers want to weigh in?

Either way, if the guy does get it, he's planning on suing Hadopi. The guy did this in the first place because he's not a fan of the three strikes law, and thinks that there should be some more discussion on it. Oh yeah, he's also promoting his own online music service as well, so this is certainly a large publicity stunt. Still, for an organization that's supposed to be about "protecting intellectual property," it hasn't shown itself to be very on the ball so far.

Filed Under: france, hadopi, trademark

Hadopi's Secret Internet Spying Spec Leaked

from the now-doesn't-that-make-you-feel-good dept

As a part of France's three strikes law, the organization in charge of implementing the program, Hadopi (which, we should remind you, was caught infringing itself in using a font it did not license for its logo), has been tasked with figuring out a way to actually block people from the internet, or to stop them from using certain file sharing programs. While there were public consultations on how to do this, the actual technical spec was supposed to have been kept secret. Not surprisingly, that didn't last very long. Glyn Moody points us to the news that the tool's spec has leaked. Basically, it's your everyday snooping software, that will monitor all internet traffic, including searching through files on your computer, and checking the router configuration. It will also act as a creepy form of Big Brother, with an alert system which, if it notices you using a file sharing program, says things like: "You are about to download a file using a P2P protocol - do you want to continue?" One hopes that it would include a button that says "Yes, Dammit, I'm Downloading Linux" or something of the sort, but that seems unlikely. The link above also notes that this appears to violate EU law, which prohibits a "general obligation to monitor."

Filed Under: hadopi, spying

French Politicians Backing Away From Three Strikes As They Realize They Need To Get Re-elected At Some Point

from the political-realities dept

France was the first country to propose a "three strikes" law, pushed through carefully by President Sarkozy (whose wife is a famous singer). What was originally thought to have been a slamdunk proposal for Sarkozy's ruling party, turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected. First, everyone was surprised when France's National Assembly rejected Sarkozy's plan. However, a month or so later, it was narrowly approved. It hit another stumbling block when the French Constitutional Council ruled it unconstitutional, but Sarkozy tweaked it and got it passed again. It was supposed to go into effect at the beginning of this year, but hit yet another snag when there were concerns over whether or not it violated data privacy laws. Last month, that hurdle was finally cleared.

So now there's nothing standing between Hadopi and kicking people off the internet, right? In fact, reports suggested the Hadopia agency (which, amusingly was caught using an infringing font for its logo -- strike one!) was ready to start sending out 50,000 notices a day.

But wait... As a bunch of you are sending in, apparently a bunch of members of Sarkozy's party are now rethinking their support of Hadopi, noting that the plan might not be very effective, and they are worrying that it may harm just casual file sharers. In fact, a leading member of the party, Jean-Francois Cope admits he's "evolved" on the issue, and notes that the law has a "clumsy choice" in terms of the wording.

Reading between the lines a bit here, it appears that these politicians have been hearing from upset constituents about Hadopi, and are starting to realize that they're going to need to get re-elected at some point. That's the kind of thing that can "evolve" your thinking on concepts like kicking your constituents off the internet, because they wanted to hear some music.

Filed Under: france, hadopi, politicians, three strikes

French Data Protection Agency Says Three Strikes Is Allowed

from the and-we're-off... dept

France's "three strikes" Hadopi program was originally supposed to go into effect in January (technically, it did...), but concerns about how this conflicted with European and French data privacy laws resulted in holding off on actually enforcing the law. However, it looks like the French data protection agency has reviewed the law and is now allowing three strikes enforcement to proceed. Apparently, now Hadopi is going to start sending out notices by the end of the month. We had already noted that since the law went into effect (even if enforcement hadn't started), file sharing had increased in France (much of it through channels not covered by Hadopi), so we'll see what happens now that enforcement begins. And, we're still wondering will anyone actually buy more music?

Filed Under: france, hadopi, three strikes