Warning emails sent in France following the new Anti Piracy Law by Zuzana Zelenakova

The new French anti piracy law called Hadopi (High Authority for Copyright Protection and Dissemination of Works on the Internet) came into effect at the end of September. That means French Internet providers are very busy these days sending thousands of emails to users that have been downloading the Internet content illegally. "Attention, your internet connection has been used to commit legally-noted acts that could constitute a breach of the law," reads the email´s beginning. As the new law states users downloading the content illegally will be tracked by their IP address. After three warnings they will be summoned before a judge and penalized in various ways. You c! an be disconnected from the Internet for a year or pay a fine up to €300,000, or even end up in jail. As the IT journal Pclnpact informed the first emails were sent to the subscribers of the two of the biggest Internet service providers, Numericable and Bouygues Telecom. Others like SFR and Orange will follow soon. The Hdopi law was introduced in 2009 and despite a strong backing from French President Nicolas Srakozy it was rejected by the French National Assembly in April, 2009. Then the government asked for reconsideration of the bill and subsequently it was passed on May 12, 2009. The question is, will the law work? On one hand, the possible consequences of the Hadopi law definitely made the Internet users more cautious in their activities, however, on the other hand, many went on to find the content they want through other sources out of reach of the Hadopi law, such as streaming services or download hosts, for example RapidShare. "Instead of developing legal opti! ons as promised, Hadopi is going straight to slapping people d! own," sa id Edouard Barreiro of the consumers' association UFC-Que Choisir, that lobbied against the law intensively .

related story (sgx18329): http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101004/tc_afp/franceitinternet...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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