French Copyright Cops Feeling Overwhelmed
French Copyright Cops Feeling Overwhelmed
Posted 07/15/2011 at 1:13pm
| by Ryan Whitwam
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France instituted a controversial “three-strikes” law earlier this year and according to some numbers release by Hadopi, the agency that implements the system, they’re getting swamped. More than 18 million copyright complaints have been filed since the system was opened up to content owners.
With that huge volume of work, the ISPs have only managed to get about 470,000 notices sent out to users. 20,000 or so of those are second notices, and just about 10 users have gotten their third strike. After the third strike, a user can experience serious penalties under the law, including disconnection from the Internet, and prosecution.
Part of the issue is that ISPs have to sort out who was assigned an IP address during a particular time the infringement was noted. Hadopi has only passed the IPs for 1 million complaints to ISPs, though. Of the processed notices, 7% of users responded to the first notice, and 15% to the second. Reportedly, most users didn’t understand the software they were using was p2p. American ISPs might want to take some notes on this mess before the US “graduated response” system kicks in.
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nealtse
July 18, 2011 at 11:13am
It seems like to me that the license holders need to get used to a new normal. You put too little protection on, people will steal because it's easy. You put too much on and you're going to hurt your paying customers. Put just enough on, and be happy with your current sales because people are going to steal anyway, and they don't need anymore justifcation. No sense discouraging paying customers for imaginary lost sales that would never exist to begin with.
Ghok
July 16, 2011 at 2:37pm
What I don't get is how they think this'll get them more money.
I spend the same money on entertainment that I always have. I still buy DVDs and occasionally go to the theatre. I still buy albums and I go to a lot of concerts. I don't have a problem downloading the occasional TV show or mp3.
If I could no longer download those occasional infractions, I simply would consume less media. I wouldn't buy more. My budget isn't going to increase unless I start making more money. If anything I'd buy less, because I'd be exposed to less.
Infringing has been around for a long time. Content providers feared the TV, they feared the VCR. They also adapted to these new technologies. From a consumers standpoint, there is more choice than we've ever had before... so it's not like TV or VCR killed the motion picture. Music has not gone away since the internet arrived. It's flourishing. Turns out people still make music even if there's less chance they'll become millionares.
Take a cue from Steam (or even something like iTunes and Netflix) and provide a service that's far better than piracy, and people will use it provided they can afford to (and if they can't, it's not like they'd be spending the money anyway).
Because right now all that money being spent on punishing your customers is not a smart investment.
ChatterboxChuck
July 18, 2011 at 10:56am
What do you expect. Fear has always been the first for of attack for any person in a high position. Fear has always been the Gov't way of getting what they want and big companies do the same. It's all about fear and control thru fear, as usual.
Eoraptor
July 16, 2011 at 9:55am
So... you're saying that they got exactly what they wished for?
good on them.
and of course, none of this addresses that it's impossible to guarantee who is really at the end of an IP address, no matter what the law says. home networks, wifi thievery, shifting public address pools.so all they can do is send a letter to an address which says "someone in your geographic zone is stealing music... we can't find them, so we're goign to punish you instead."
essjay22
July 15, 2011 at 2:26pm
Perfect. The Powers That Be finally get a whole country to give in and then they completely overwhelm them with a gazillion stupid little p2p complaints instead of going after the really big ones.
sounds like a plan.
Captain_Steve
July 15, 2011 at 7:20pm
Were the content creators to spend a fracton of the money innovating the way they do business instead of fighting the flow of technology, they might actually find a way to stay relevant.
kevaskous
July 15, 2011 at 4:43pm
To crush rather then capitalize on a evolving market, that's how they work, do you expect anything they do to make sense?
CaptainFabulous
July 15, 2011 at 5:54pm
Exactly. Any bets on how long this will go on until the ISPs start to complain loudly and the whole thing either gets dismantled or severely neutered to the point of it being useless?
Holly Golightly
July 15, 2011 at 10:46pm
Oh, this method of law enforcement will eventually collapse on its' own. Nothing illegal about P2P. So people will keep using it. Yet need to relax, sharing files is a new way of life. It was like borrowing cassettes from your next door neighbor. No harm done. Buying the damn thing is sometimes not economically practical, and sometimes redundant. One way to fight piracy is offer a digital version for a fraction of the price.
RUSENSITIVESWEETNESS
July 16, 2011 at 8:49am
If they copied the old AllOfMP3 pricing schedules and library, I'd be buying from them. But I'm not paying $1 for a single 128-Kbps track.
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