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Deutsch: Frankreich: Hadopi erhält weitere Befugnisse
The Hadopi law continues to develop as the French Government pushes last minute amendments to be passed by the Parliament.
Thus, the French National Assembly adopted on 1 February 2011, late at night, an amendment filed at the last moment by the Government, that would allow French three strikes authority (Hadopi) to pay private-sector companies for carrying out online surveillance and filtering.
Amendment 151 to the draft Law on Simplifying and Improving the Quality of Laws extends Hadopi powers to "provide support for innovative research and experimentation projects by state or privately-owned entities that would assist the Authority in fulfilling its mission (...)", meaning that the authority would have the freedom to subsidise private entities for "the development of the legal offer and the observation of legal and illegal use of works".
Although it was passed in a rush and late at night, the amendment did not go unnoticed. The legal commission of the General Assembly showed concerns regarding the constitutionality of the amendment stating it had no time to examine it and asked for its withdrawal. Deputy Alain Vidalies warned that the opposition would take the issue to the Constitutional Court, considering the amendment as a "legislative knight" (a text which has actually no relation to the text examined).
Another draft decree related to Hadopi was on CNIL's agenda on 20 January 2011 and is now to be examined by the State Council. The decree, already modified once in October 2010, introduces means to interconnect ISPs' subscriber files with infringement information received by the Hadopi authority and makes electronic transmissions of all files from Hadopi to courts.
This modification fulfils Hadopi's wish to manage all three strikes processes up to the courts by information systems, as the authority stated in November 2010: "Actually, the information system manages the first pedagogical phases of the graduate response procedure (...) It must be completed to manage the next exchange phase with the prosecutor offices and jurisdictions, for which a decree of the Culture Minister is to be published next month."
The current procedure is that the files are verified first by the Commission for the Protection of Rights (CPD) before being sent to the prosecutor. However, the president of CPD stated in an interview at the end of 2010 that he supported the idea that the "negligent infraction" can be verified by the repeated offence and therefore, no additional evidence is necessary. "If the subscriber has not changed his behaviour after three offences, he has therefore not placed any security measure (...) the consequences of your actions are those that prove the infringement ", said CPD President.
The transmission of Hadopi files to the prosecutor offices is already covered by a procedural decree of July 2010 which says that the files are sent "to the prosecutor of the Republic attached to the competent high court."
The idea is to make these transmissions electronic and to allow the courts to send their decisions electronically. Hadopi wants to make certain that a decision to suspend a subscriber's Internet access is applied. The authority also wants to be sure the subscriber cannot use another ISP during the suspension period.
Hadopi law modified in the middle of the night to finance private actors!
(only in French, 2.02.2011)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/17948-la-loi-hadopi-modifiee-en-plein...
Hadopi: a legislative knight voted at night by the Assembly (only in
French, 4.02.2011)
http://www.01net.com/www.01net.com/editorial/527873/hadopi-un-cavalier...
Hadopi: towards a decree for electronic transmission to prosecutor's
offices (only in French, 1.02.2011)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/17944-hadopi-vers-un-decret-pour-la-t...
Hadopi wants to make electronic the graduate response phase (only in French,
18.11.2010)
http://www.itespresso.fr/hadopi-cherche-informatiser-phase-riposte-gra...