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Major Battle Brewing Between French Gov't and ISPs

Dangerous_Minds writes "Drew Wilson has been following HADOPI (France's three strikes law) a lot lately, and the latest developments are that the French ISPs and the French government are edging closer to a full-on war over compensation. The French government apparently requested that ISPs send an invoice of the bills after a certain period of time, but the French ISPs don't feel this is good enough — probably because of worries that the compensation the government will ultimately provide won't be enough. The ISPs are demanding adequate compensation, and if the government doesn't give it to them, they simply will not hand over evidence required to enforce HADOPI law. While HADOPI demands that ISPs cooperate, speculation suggests that if the government takes ISPs to court, the ISPs will simply rely on constitutional jurisprudence to shield them from liability (translation)."

21 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Never gonna happen by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Getting the French government to surrender? That seems unlikely.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Never gonna happen by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 3, Funny

      Maybe if they disconnect the government from the internet. It is standard practice if you don't pay your ISP.

      --
      Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    2. Re:Never gonna happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As unlikely as getting the American government to surrender, I think (read Vietnam.)

    3. Re:Never gonna happen by daem0n1x · · Score: 2, Informative

      I don't like the French, but if it wasn't for them, you'd still be drinking tea.

  2. Gotta side with the ISPs on this one by Pojut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Monitoring and fulfilling information requests costs time and money. If they're being required to do so constantly, chances are they had to bring on temporary staff to keep up with the worklog. It's wholly unfair to demand this of them, and yet not compensate them.

    Then again, "fair", "business", and "government" don't go together, so ::shrug::.

    1. Re:Gotta side with the ISPs on this one by Pojut · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What do you mean "again"? Most people only get concerned when I'm NOT talking to myself :p

    2. Re:Gotta side with the ISPs on this one by wisnoskij · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It is not necessarily unfair.
      Even if I do not agree in regulating the net.
      business need to deal with the unpleasant results of their business as well as making money.
      The oil companies for example are not paid by the government to run safe rigs and to clean up their spills, the government forces them to do that if they want to remain in the oil business.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    3. Re:Gotta side with the ISPs on this one by Pojut · · Score: 3, Informative

      Using your examples of oil companies, it is true that they aren't necessarily payed to run safe rigs...however, the government is a huge customer of theirs (military, government official vehicles, etc) as well as providing them legislation that works in their favor and tax breaks/keeping tax loopholes open.

      They aren't directly payed money, but approve or disapprove, they're still compensated.

    4. Re:Gotta side with the ISPs on this one by wisnoskij · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well you could say the same of ISPs, the government is a huge customer of most industries and tend to pass pro industry laws.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
  3. Wow Brilliant by Haedrian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So the government buckled to pressure from large 'content-producing' corporations - and our only defense is are other large corporations who don't want to comply because it hurts their wallets.

    Not because they think its a bad idea, respect their customers or whatever, because it hurts their wallet.

    What a giant mess this world is - money driven. When are the revised copyright laws coming out? No there's no large company which wants that, oh allright - Never O'Clock

    1. Re:Wow Brilliant by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They should cut out the middle man - let the content producers compensate the ISPs directly. Surely it's a small price for them to pay if it's going to prevent billions of Euros in lost sales due to piracy, it's also a short-term thing because the biggest pirates will disconnected within a couple of months.

      --
      No sig today...
  4. Re:Why do people allow this to continue... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The same reason you allow murder and other shit to still happen. There is nothing an individual can do about it.

  5. Europe by Lord+Ender · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So in one part of Europe, internet access is a fundamental human right. In another part of Europe, it can taken away entirely for the minor crime of copyright infringement.

    When is the EU civil war coming? There needs to be a Scandinavian Lincoln to conquer France and free the oppressed.

    --
    A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
    1. Re:Europe by kevinNCSU · · Score: 3, Funny

      Europeans fighting and killing other Europeans?! Inconceivable!!

  6. ISPs are not police forces by Drakkenmensch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Police forces, for one thing, get an upfront budget instead of being asked to "police the country first and send us the bill later, we'll decide if we pay you back or not."

    1. Re:ISPs are not police forces by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Banks are not police forces either, and yet they have to report suspicious activities and supply evidence all the time.

    2. Re:ISPs are not police forces by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Banks are regulated, ISP not so much. Pass a law to regulate ISP to do such, then ALL ISP can charge the customers for the cost of doing it instead of billing the government. Then the ISPs will be happy to comply because the consumers won't have any where else to go as an alternative.

  7. Not enough anti-piracy laws by cheekyjohnson · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Clearly there needs to be more anti-piracy laws that hardly affect the pirate and mostly just affect the average citizen! What would we do without these worthless bills, laws, and treaties that don't actually affect their intended target, take away more of everyones rights, and try to 'recover' imaginary profits that pirates 'stole'?

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    Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
  8. That's not all Isps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    that's just one ISP ..they refuse to give for free somithing that cost them (the identity of the ip owner).
    the two other major ISP are more sympatize with it , like orange who give it for free(Albanel witch was the cuturel ministre in charge of hadopie for a time and just continually ridiculize herself is now in charge of Orange comuncation or something like that ).
    SFR , (Vivendi universal Subsidiary) is like Orange "pro Hadopi"

    some other ISP like FDN (the oldest french isp) are against hadopi with FREE ..

  9. Law that should not exist by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When enforcing the law creates an undue burden on society -- tax dollars are not enough, private industries dollars are not enough, and people continue to break the law anyway -- perhaps it is time to ask, "Does this law even make sense?"

    Oh, wait, the copyright lobby -- I forgot that their interests trump everything, even logic.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  10. Hadopi scammers by airfoobar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In related news, today TechDirt posted about scammers starting to send out fake Hadopi notices asking random people for money.
    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100902/02075110872.shtml

    This is really turning out to be a FAIL of EPIC proportions.