Hadopi warnings ‘ready to be sent’
The anti-internet piracy body has asked for offenders’ details from their ISPs, the last stage before warnings are sent
WARNING emails will finally be sent out by mid-October to people who have made illegal downloads, says anti-internet piracy body Hadopi.
The new authority was supposed to be ready to act in April, then June, then September, but it has been held up by legal complications.
Now the body says that it has sent its first batch of requests to internet service providers (ISPs), asking them to reveal identities of internet users found to have illegally downloaded files such as music or films.
Their IP addresses, unique numbers identifying computers connected to the internet, are held by Hadopi, but the ISPs have the names and addresses these correspond to. By law they can be fined €1,500 per IP address if they refuse to hand over details in eight days.
According to PC Impact magazine, which spoke to a source at one of the ISPs, all of the big firms, such as Free, Orange, Numéricable and SFR, have received requests concerning several hundred IP addresses.
“We have convinced all the ISPs to cooperate,” said Culture Minister Frédéric Mitterand.
The IP addresses are those of people who had used illegal file sharing sites, identified by surveillance firms working for copyright holders and passed to Hadopi.
Once the authority has the details requested, it will send warning emails and it says the first batch is ready to go. If people persist in making illegal downloads, email warnings will be followed by a recorded delivery letter, before their details are passed to a court, which will be able to fine them and order their internet connections to be cut off for a period.
