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Deutsch: Two Strikes für Deutschland?
On 3 February 2012, the German Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) published a comparative study on graduated response systems in Europe which have been established to fight against copyright infringements on the Internet. The study looked at the situation in France, UK and Ireland. Regarding the Hadopi system in France, the study found that one of the main results and successes is the drop by 31% of peer-to-peer between April 2010 and April 2011, thus completely ignoring the rising use of streaming and VPN in France.
Even though the study admits that illegal filesharing has "not caused any serious collapse in the turnover of the industry" (p. 61), the Ministry recommends the introduction of a "two strikes" or "pre-litigation" model for Germany. According to the study, this model should be based on a combination of "educational notifications" and the disclosure of information to rightsholders. The Secretary of State Hans-Joachim Otto considered the study a valuable basis for the future discussions regarding online piracy. However, cutting off users from the Internet has been ruled out.
As significant grounds for concern were already well known (it is widely understood to have been mainly written by media lobbyists and rightsholders), EDRi-member Digitale Gesellschaft published a shadow report. It pointed out that existing models raise significant and fundamental data protection problems. For instance, the Irish voluntary three-strikes system is currently experiencing legal difficulties due to such concern and numerous complaints to the data protection authority. In Ireland, hundreds of notifications were received by innocent users.
The shadow report also highlighted the high costs for the French state compared to the almost non-existing benefits for the economy. The shadow report concluded that all efforts and means should be focused on the creation of attractive offers instead of repressive measures and recommended a general reform of outdated copyright laws.
Shadow report of the Digital Gesellschaft (only in German, 02.2012)
http://digitalegesellschaft.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/schattenberi...
Long version of the BMWi study (only in German, 01.2012)
http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/PDF/Publikationen/Technologie-und-In...
(Contribution by Kirsten Fielder - EDRi)