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The European Chapters Coordinating Council of the Internet Society (ISOC-ECC) issued a press release on 5 September 2008 expressing its opposition against the "graduated response" proposed by the so-called HADOPI law presented to the French Council of Ministers in June 2008. The same arguments were also submitted to the European Commission in an Aide Memoire sent on 4 August 2008.

While the issue is under debate in the European Parliament, the Aide Memoire, signed by France, Poland, England, Germany, Wallonia, Belgium, Romania, Luxembourg, Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Spain, Netherlands as members of ISOC-ECC, comments upon the "proposed restrictions on access to and use of the Internet, in the name of protection of intellectual property rights". ECC believes that the proposed French law "is a disproportionate response to the stated objectives of the EU Commission's Communication and that the proposed measures and sanctions reflect a lack of understanding as to the nature of the Internet with unfavourable consequences for the use of the Internet for many economic and social purposes."

While ISOC members generally support established copyright laws, including protecting users' rights, they believe that the measures and penalties proposed show a lack of understanding of what Internet means. In their opinion, the HADOPI law tends to look backwards thus confirming the concern that the media industries have not yet adapted their business and commercial activities to the present situation. "However, the global reach of the Internet and its continued rapid expansion, energetically promoted by the public authorities in nearly all countries, is the basic fact and context for any understanding of this matter" says the Aide Memoire.

ISOC members also consider that the graduated response is bad both from the economical as well as social point of view. "The Internet has become an essential social and administrative tool for many public and private purposes. Disconnecting households would interfere with and undermine the provision of public services by national and EU administrations and of education by the schools. Such measures would also prejudice the introduction of on-line banking and electronic commerce in general". What must also be considered is that within the EU legislation, a member state cannot interfere with the transboundary provision of electronic services.

The HADOPI project and the graduated response would imply the collection and retaining of a huge amount of personal data during the investigations of Internet users suspected of illegal downloading. But there is no clear legal framework related to the treatment of these data. Improper protection or loss of data can cause prejudices to the people in question.

The Aide Memoire concludes that the proposed measures would not achieve the declared objectives appearing to be "technically flawed and probably legally unenforceable, at least in a non-discriminatory manner." The measures would involve an "unacceptably high level of monitoring of individual use of the Internet" and would "interfere with several other priority objectives associated with generalised broad-band Internet access and with the EU Internal Market for electronic commerce."

The recommendation is that before taking such legal and administrative measures, the industries should find business models that would take into consideration the changes of the media as a result of the Internet and the digitisation of communications.

At the same time, against all oppositions and concerns, in France, the HADOPI law, now called "Creation and Internet", will be examined by the French Senate probably in October this year. It seems that SNEP, the association of the music industry in France, is worried that the law might be rejected and has sent a letter to the French President Nicolas Sarkozy to remind him of the promises he had made to support the music industry. The association wants to be sure that the discussion of the law in the Parliament is pushed for this Autumn.

Albanel, the French Ministry of Culture having supported and pushed the law, has assured the industry that the plans were according to the schedule for this Autumn and the law was to be put into application at the beginning of 2009. The law is presently in the hands of the Cultural Commission of the Senate.

ISOC-ECC Aide Memoire - Internet - creative content and "graduated responses" (4.08.2008)
http://www.isoc-ecc.org/docs/ipr2008/GRADUATED_RESPONSES_FIN2_040808.p...

Letter from ISOC-France to the French Senate (only in French, 27.06.2008)
http://www.isoc.fr/25-juin-08-audition-devant-le-senat_breve0045.html

The European Coordination of the Internet Society against HADOPI project: a substantiated opposition (only in French, 6.09.2008)
http://isoc.fr/spip/spip.php?article92

Hadopi Law: Albanel reassures the producers on the timeframe (only in French, 2.09.2008)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/10538-Loi-Hadopi-Albanel-rassure-les-...

EDRi-gram: France pushes for ISPs' involvement in fighting illegal file sharing (30.07.2008)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.15/france-isp-culture