One More Copyright Infringement, And HADOPI Must Disconnect Itself From The Net

from the equal-before-the-law dept

The governmental body that oversees France’s “three-strikes” law, HADOPI, has already been caught once infringing on the copyright of others — by using a logo designed with unlicensed fonts. Now it’s been spotted using photographs without respecting the so-called “moral rights” of the photographer, which include the right to attribution (French original), absent on HADOPI’s site. Such moral rights are taken very seriously in France, where they are automatic, perpetual and cannot be waived (unlike in some other jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom.)

As with the earlier slip, the current example shows just how easy it is for someone to infringe on copyrights through error or oversight. Of course, HADOPI doesn’t accept either excuse when it’s a matter of sending out its famous warnings, or disconnecting people from the Net. So, in the spirit of fairness, it would be unjust to grant itself any leeway either.

That makes two strikes against it so far; let’s hope it’s more careful in the future, or it will obviously be forced to cut off its own Internet connection to set an example to the rest of France.

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Comments on “One More Copyright Infringement, And HADOPI Must Disconnect Itself From The Net”

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46 Comments
hfbs (profile) says:

You know.. I want them to infringe another time, just to see what they’d do. But I think I can guess – they’ll say ‘ahh, but we don’t pirate stuff, which is what we meant when we introduced this law’ and they’ll just carry on as usual, giving strikes against people that make the same mistakes they did and you can bet your bottom dollar, when they get 3 strikes, they’re outta here.

Long story short – HADOPI will hold itself above the law. I hope you Frenchies are up for some more protests 😀

RonKaminsky says:

Unwaivable "rights"

> Such moral rights are taken very seriously in France, where
> they are automatic, perpetual and cannot be waived (unlike
> in some other jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom.)

Oh, even in the UK you have unwaivable rights — for example, the right of an artist to get resale royalties on his paintings is “unalienable” in the UK.

What I find absurd about such “rights” is that by codifying them, the governments are stripping at least one other “right” from creators — the right to give one’s creations away to someone else or to the general public, with no strings attached. For many creators in the modern era, this right is much more important.

Anonymous Coward says:

HADOPI only applies to infringement through electronic communications services. Warnings are initiated from a complaint by the copyright holder. A second warning must come within 6 months of the first. A third warning must come within 1 year of the second.

How strong can a claim be if one has to rely on arguments that have no basis in reality?

DC (profile) says:

Re:

and why would anyone be hesitant to complain to a powerful government entity? Don’t know, lobbyists seem to get that access all the time.

Really, your arguments for locking up culture and criminalizing the populace are just disgusting.

Pick a handle (alias) and let us know who you are .. oh .. right … that would demonstrate that there are not thousands of ACs clamoring for ever more stringent IP protection.

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Nathanael says:

Mandamus?

HADOPI has committed two electronic infringments. Let’s hope the copyright holders in the fonts and paintings make a point of sending the requisite notices to HADOPI. Then the third one, which will happen, no doubt.

After that, it’s just a matter of a private lawsuit to force the government to do what it is required by law to do. I remember the name for this in Anglo-American law — “mandamus” — but I don’t know the equivalent under French law, though I do know that there *is* one.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re:

and why would anyone be hesitant to complain to a powerful government entity? Don’t know, lobbyists seem to get that access all the time.

Who said anything about hesitating to complain to government?

Really, your arguments for locking up culture and criminalizing the populace are just disgusting.

Who said anything about locking up culture or criminalizing the populace? I didn’t.

Pick a handle (alias) and let us know who you are .. oh .. right … that would demonstrate that there are not thousands of ACs clamoring for ever more stringent IP protection.

Paranoid much? Truth isn’t decided democratically. I’m sorry you think it is.

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