France Tracks Down 18 Million File-Sharers(torrentfreak.com)
torrentfreak.com
France Tracks Down 18 Million File-Sharers
http://torrentfreak.com/france-tracks-down-18-million-file-sharers-110714/
20 comments
According to wikipedia, France only has 20 million homes with broadband. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_...
And yet 18 Million file-sharers were tracked? Doesn't pass the smell test, sorry.
And yet 18 Million file-sharers were tracked? Doesn't pass the smell test, sorry.
Exactly my thought :) I suppose they probably tracked 18 millions separate "sharing activities", for instance 1.8 million people each sharing 10 different torrents.
edit: I just checked the linked article, and it's actually talking of 18 millions infractions from an undefined number of file sharers.
edit: I just checked the linked article, and it's actually talking of 18 millions infractions from an undefined number of file sharers.
The story doesn't tell if all 18 million are French users. The tracking company Trident Media Guard could very well be operating globally. The ISPs reportedly only returned 900,000 identities which may be the French portion of the initial 18 million.
[french citizen here]
Hadopi had a couple of effects:
* You know you've got 2 free warnings before you have to become careful, e.g. by subscribing to a VPN for a couple euros a day.
* Hadopi only monitors P2P; French movies and music massively migrated to megaupload et al.
* It has shown that many people are willing to pay a reasonable fee for unlimited media access, and that if majors won't take their money, then VPN and file sharing providers gladly will.
I hoped it would promote uncontrollable technologies such as darknets or F2F networks, but they've been way too inefficient to do that.
Hadopi had a couple of effects:
* You know you've got 2 free warnings before you have to become careful, e.g. by subscribing to a VPN for a couple euros a day.
* Hadopi only monitors P2P; French movies and music massively migrated to megaupload et al.
* It has shown that many people are willing to pay a reasonable fee for unlimited media access, and that if majors won't take their money, then VPN and file sharing providers gladly will.
I hoped it would promote uncontrollable technologies such as darknets or F2F networks, but they've been way too inefficient to do that.
Enforcing laws that result in the criminalisation of a huge proportion of the population seems like bad governance if you ask me.
It's bad governance, but many governments have "previous form". About 5% of the population of the UK are regular cannabis users, with many many more being occasional users.
Woah, 5%? Do you have a citation for that?
I hate to be that person who points it out, but a trivial Google search will yield plenty of sources: http://www.google.com/search?q=uk+cannabis+user+population
OK, it seems higher than I thought. The number I had was "more than 3 million" (from [1]) which would be 5%. But it seems the number may be higher.
This is regular users. Occasional users and people who have tried it in the past, are both much higher figures.
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2923647.stm
This is regular users. Occasional users and people who have tried it in the past, are both much higher figures.
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2923647.stm
“Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against—then you’ll know that this is not the age for beautiful gestures. We’re after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you’d better get wise to it. There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there it that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted—and you create a nation of lawbreakers—and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Rearden, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
By Ayn Rand.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
Wow, so they want to hunt down 30% of their population (or possibly more when only considering % of people using internet) for this offense...
I'd be really curious to see how this translates to music and tvshow/movie sales over the next 6 months. Do they go up or down and by how much.
They emailed the subscribers .... does anybody check the mailbox that came with their connection? I know certainly don't!
I hope that many politicians are among the false positives.
France is nuts. Leave the people alone!
18 million observed instances of filesharing in supposed breach of copyright, not 18 million filesharers. Of a million lucky instances chosen at random, 90% of these led to the identification of lucky lucky account holders. Of the 900,000, 470,000 first warnings were sent out. The rest might presumably be duplicates, or based abroad, because it's hard to see why the other 430,000 IDs were not part of the email-sending exercise. they might also be libraries, internet cafs, etc.
Interestingly, it seems HADOPI really took the UN's human rights criticism of HADOPI-like measures; it recently put out a press release urging caution, transparency and legal compliance by those seeking to develop deep packet inspection technology and other filters (which it must be notified of), telling the private sector to instead focus on developing legal media offerings and experimenting with pricing (http://www.hadopi.fr/download/sites/default/files/page/pdf/C...)