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Ever since DADVSI, the French implementation of the European Copyright Directive, Internet users in France have faced increasingly disproportionate threats of punishment for claims of copyright infringement. The latest scheme promoted by the content industry against unauthorized sharing of music and films on Internet is called "flexible response" or "three strikes, you're dead".

The principle is simple: repeated infringements result in getting cut off from the Internet. A claimed copyright infringer is identified by automated Internet traffic filtering and by a rightsholders' denunciation. After a complaint to the ISP, a letter is sent warning the alleged infringer that he might be being cut off from the Internet. In the

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The extension of the copyright law aimed at fighting illegal file-sharing adopted on 11 April 2008 by the German Government creates concerns on how the p2p-related lawsuits will be considered under the new law.

The new text forces the ISPs to reveal the names and IP addresses of the file sharers. However, some lawyers warn that the procedure is limited by conditions that could turn against the music industry in court procedings .

The present procedure is as follows: industry detectives report the IP numbers of file sharers to the German police who traces the suspects and prosecutes those who offer more than 1000 tracks. However, the industry can demand the police files of all file sharers and

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After the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) sued the PirateBay at the end of March 2008 demanding 1.6 million euro in damages as compensation for 24 albums, new elements have occurred forcing IFPI to limit its demands.

The Stockholm District Court indicted the four PirateBay founders (Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundström) for breaking copyright law. The fine to be paid by PirateBay was established according to the number of times the 24 albums were downloaded. Moreover, the companies demanded general compensation as no permission was given by the copyright owners for the downloading. "The damages now being demanded are

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The 9th meeting of the Council of Europe (CoE) group of specialists on Human Rights in the Information Society (MC-S-IS) was held in Strasbourg from 31 March to 2 April 2008. At the same time, on 1-2 April, another division of the CoE was holding in a building across the street its 2008 Octopus conference on cooperation against cybercrime. This schedule overlapping is not the only sign that CoE's left hand seems to ignore what its right hand is doing: different divisions are also addressing same issues, though from different points of view and with different results.

It happened this time with the guidelines for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). While the Octopus conference was discussing and then adopting its

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The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the UK music trade body, has asked British ISPs to disconnect the users that share music considering that this is just an education measure to their customers not to steal music. However, the UK ISPs are complaining about the fact that they are turned into the Internet police.

The record labels have made pressures on ISPs to take actions to prevent illegal music downloading lobbying for a "three strikes" system (similar to the French one supported by Sarkozy) leading to the disconnection of those who illegally download copyrighted material on the Internet.

BPI is apparently working now with Virgin Media on a trial program that might come to life in a few months and which includes a warning letter at

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Sony BMG has been accused by PointDev company of having used Ideal Migration, the administration software for Windows servers and client accounts, without having a licence.

On 22 January 2008, a bailiff mandated by PointDev found an illegal installation of the software on four computers belonging to Sony BMG. Paul-Henry Agustoni, owner and administrator of the editor claims 300 000 euro damages from Sony BMG.

The case started in November 2007 when a Sony employee requested online technical support from PointDev. Ideal Migration, like all the other products of the company is proposed on the Internet in a trial version. Following the purchase of the product, the client is provided with a key

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Although initially the Swedish Government promised not to hunt down young people for filesharing, on 14 March 2008, it made a proposal that will allow courts to force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to give up IP addresses used for illegal filesharing to the owners of the fileshared material.

The government's present proposal means the rejection of the previous alternative proposed by Appeals Court judge Cecilia Renfors who was suggesting ISPs should shut down users who repeatedly downloaded copyrighted material without permission.

ISPs welcomed the government decision considering that Renfors' proposal would have put the providers "in a position of having to police our own

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The Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali) issued a press release on 13 March 2008, explaining that the private companies can't systematically monitor the activities of peer-to-peer (P2P) users that share files on the Internet, for the purpose of identifying and suing them.

The decision was taken on 28 February 2008 in the very controversial Peppermint case.

Peppermint is a German record label that has been using since 2007 the services of a Swiss company, Logistep, in order to gather IP addresses of Italian users that allegedly shared copyrighted files via peer-to-peer software.

The company asked an Italian judge to obtain the details on more than 3000