French Three-Strikes Warnings Have Officially Begun

[nsane.forums]

French ISPs Bouygues and Numericable earned the distinction of having been the first to send subscribers a letter warning them of suspected copyright infringing activity, and Orange and SFR and expected to follow suit this morning.

The era of disconnecting file-sharers from the Internet has officially begun in France with news that several of the country's ISPs have already sent out emails to subscribers warning them of suspected infringing activity, and several more are expected to do the same later this morning.

The effort is part of the country's "Creation and Internet" law, the controversial "three-strikes" measure to fight P2P in that country that was first proposed back in June of 2008. It was formally passed last September, but not after first before being ruled unconstitutional over the fact that an agency (HADOPI), and not a judge, was allowed to disconnect people from the Internet.

So far HADOPI has sent out hundreds of requests for identifying information from ISPs, and all of them have already said they plan to respond without a fight. Those that refuse to comply face a an "offense of the fifth class" and a fine of 1500 euros ($2,000 USD).

The first warning emails were sent this past Saturday by ISPs Bouygues and Numericable, and Orange and SFR reportedly plan to follow suit today. The laws also requires that HADOPI send a physical letter via standard mail as well.

The govt has launched a website called hadopi.fr to give people an official source of information about Hadopi and what the "three-strikes" efforts mean for them while hadopi-data.fr offers a source of information about the rights of the accused and how they should respond.

For now the letters are just a warning, the first of "three-strikes," but when households begin losing their Internet connection, especially those unable to properly secure their Wi-Fi connection, it'll be interesting to see how the law tests the patience of a public usually more concerned with civil liberties than failing business models.

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