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Deutsch: Französiche ISPs versenden erste Verwarnungen gemäß Three-Strikes-R...

On 1 October 2010, Bouygues Telecom and Numéricable were the first French ISPs to send warning emails to suspected illegal file-sharers, on behalf of Hadopi authority. According the media reports several hunderds warning emails have been send in these first days.

After this first message, the Internet user deemed to have allegedly continued to illegally download copyrighted content in the following six months, will receive a second warning by a registered letter. The third alleged infringement may be penalised by a fine and the suspension of the user's subscription up to a year without the possibility to make another subscription during that period.

This is how the warning letter begins: "Attention, your Internet connection has been used to commit acts that could constitute a breach of the law," adding that piracy "is a serious threat to the economy of the cultural sector."

Orange and SFR were supposed to send their first e-mails on 4 October but there has been no communication from them until now, while Free has already stated it would not send the e-mails, pending an answer from the Ministry of Culture and Hadopi on its alternative method for dealing with customers, taking the privacy concerns of the French Data Protection Authority - CNIL into account.

The French authority on implementing the three strikes law also launched on 1 October 2010 its official website, Hadopi.fr, which includes news, a presentation of the authority, information on "responsible usage", a forum for questions and other types of information such as the action to take in case of receiving a warning message from the authority.

During a press conference that took place on 5 October 2010, Hadopi representatives did not want to comment on the launch of the warning messages. The only comment that Hadopi president Marie-Françoise Marais made was that the three-strikes process was going on.

She also added that while the dialogue with the ISP Free was in progress, Free's lack of cooperation would reflect on its users because they would not receive an initial email warning in the event of copyright infringement but they would receive a registered letter (the second stage) in case of repeated infringement.

While the Hadopi.fr site has brought about a lot of sarcastic comments, Numerama launched Hadopi-Data.fr site, a tool that will should allow the supervision of Hadopi's activity considering that transparency is not a strong point of the regulator.

Internet users having received a warning message may anonymously place information on Hadopi-Data.fr regarding the date they received the warning, the date of the alleged infringement act, the type of works in question and their postal code. This last piece of information can be used to check out whether there is any geographic targeting by Hadopi.

Based on the data input, Numerama intends to create graphs on the ISPs that send the e-mails to their subscribers, on categories of works that generate the most numerous warnings and on Hadopi's activity in time. The ammount of data will therefore be vital in order to have a clear overview of the situation.

La Quadrature du Net has also launched a citizen initiative trying to find the first French Internet user to receive an e-mail initiated by Hadopi.

Threatened by attacks, Hadopi.fr opens its doors (only in French, 1.10.2010)
http://www.01net.com/editorial/521611/menace-dattaques-hadopi-fr-ouvre...

Hadopi-Data.fr :let's check together Hadopi's activity (only in French, 4.10.2010)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/16921-hadopi-datafr-controlons-ensemb...

Hadopi : the first e-mails at Bouygues, SFR, Orange and Numericable? (only in French, 4.10.2010)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/16963-hadopi-1ers-e-mails-chez-bouygu...

Hadopi. The first warnings sent (only in French, 5.10.2010)
http://www.letelegramme.com/ig/generales/france-monde/france/hadopi-pr...

First Anti-Piracy Warnings Issued In France (5.10.2010)
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i7b035dcf5d2...