On Saturday, “The French version of the Three Strikes element of the Hollywood and Big Music ACTA bidniz plan has gone into effect,” I reported, going on:
“And Australia’s ABC News, acting as an unpaid entertainment industry PR unit, says virtually every French file sharer who gets the second of two warnings will ’stop engaging in illegal internet downloads’.”
But, “Jon, sorry to contradict you but the law is not yet into effect,” said a p2pnet reader, continuing >>>
It’s application decrees have not been published yet, and the CNIL (national commission for computers and liberties) wants to review certain points and they also need to read the decrees for that. Incidentally, there are regional elections in three months and the president of the CNIL belongs to the party of Sarkozy, so one might wonder if they’re not pushing the application of the law for after the elections. Let alone the fact that the security software that users should be able to get (buy) that would protect them from the piracy claims of HADOPI is still “under work” and nobody saw anything about it so far.
The law won’t go in effect before April, and even after that it won’t be enforceable anyway.
As I also said, “Stay tuned as the Free French gear up for the 21st century version of the French Revolution.”
‘ … some sites are already offering workarounds … ‘
French president and copyright violator Nicolas Sarkozy is fronting 3 strikes on behalf of the corporate entertainment industry. In Britain the task has fallen to Peter ‘Mandy’ Mandelson.
The UK version is touted under Digital Economy Bill, which enters the Committee stage in the House of Lords on Wednesday (January 6).
But it won’t go anywhere before the next general election, predicted for the spring and which will see the current Labour government replaced by something just as bad.
Meanwhile, “Hadopi has attracted a maelstrom of criticism both in France and abroad,” observes paidContent, stating >>>
Before it is even live, some sites are already offering workarounds to keep file-sharers out of the slammer.
PCUK spoke with Tony Ballard, a partner with UK media law firm Harbottle & Lewis, who says that another possible delay might come from the need to harmonize Hadopi with the new European telecoms bill that got passed in November 2009. The French government will need to ensure that whatever new legislation they put in place will be in line with the EU bill, Ballard says. But, while the European bill no longer has a provision that affected freeloaders will get a court hearing before having their accounts suspended, the French law does.
Implementing Hadopi “will also give more weight to similar laws being considered in the UK and elsewhere,” the story has Ballard saying, adding:
“It’s very likely we will see more [laws like this in other countries] particularly with the new directive. It creates a framework through which this kind of mechanism can be deployed.”
Oh Really?
They’re kind of forgetting who depends on who.
Jon Newton