Category Archives: Copyright

Wolverine is a success…

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at least on P2P sites. It is now about one week that a leaked version appeared on the net. The version is an unfinished one; Not the final release. It has leaked out either from within Fox or from some sub contractors.

Of course, this version is already the top downloaded movie at tracker sites. According to TorrentFreak, more than 1 million downloads already. And the first DVDs appear on the street. This is three weeks before the official theatrical release.

This reminds the leakage of Hulk without right colorimetry. The movie was a disaster.

Interestingly, TorrentFreak made a poll: 40% of the downloaders expect to view the FINAL cut in theater or in DVD. The release was pre-effects and several months old. This means that it may be a good teaser. People know that the final one will be better.

Is French HADOPI law dead? (5)

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The current answer is no. The law is alive and in good shape.

Thursday evening, French Parliament has approved the law “Création et Internet.” This law allows the graduated response. (For more details see Fighting piracy in Security Newsletter #11).

The law has been slightly modified with approved amendments. The most important one requires the ISP to pay back the subscriber the subscription part that is not related to IP TV or IP phone during the banning period. The amendment that proposed to replace the banishment by a fine has been rejected.

Is the game over? Not fully sure. There are two remaining pitfalls.

  • The HADOPI is a non judicial institution that will take judicial decisions. This may be judged unconstitutional by the French Council of State.
  • If ever European Union decides that the access to Internet is a fundamental right, then the French law would be also unconstitutional regarding EU constitution.

In any case, the next step is the announcement of the HADOPI and its members.

Is French HADOPI law dead? (4)

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Once more, European Parliament fights French HADOPI law. On 26 March 2009, the European Parliament has approved a report “Security and fundamental freedoms on the Internet”. 481 votes in favor, 25 against and 21 abstentions. The report has a large scope. Nevertheless, one of the voted recommendations may have direct impact on French graduated response.

Members of European Parliament are also concerned with the idea that “e-illiteracy will be the new illiteracy of the 21st Century.” The report argues that in this age, having access to the internet is “equivalent to ensuring that all citizens have access to schooling”, and that this access should not be denied by governments or private companies.

In other words, the European Parliament states that banning access to Internet should be illegal. The strongest penalty of the French graduated response is to ban for one year the access to Internet for infringers. French government already mitigated this banning announcing that they would probably allow some services such as mail.

If ever the EU decides that access ti Internet is a fundamental right of citizens, then French graduated response would be illegal. French government does not consider this access as a fundamental right.

Interestingly, the law is currently under examination of the French parliament. Some delegates already proposed to replace the Internet ban by a fine.

For history, follow the thread Is French HADOPI law dead? (3)

Graduated response: The pirate bay answers

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A few days before the examination of French law that should launch the graduated response, the pirate bay has announced a riposte. The pirate bay launches a new service. Here is their description:

IPREDator is a network service that makes people online more anonymous using a VPN. it costs about 5 EUR a month and we store no traffic data.
our service is right now in a beta stage. we hope it will be released for the public before 1st of April. sign up now to start using it as soon as we’re stable.
the network is under our control. not theirs.

In other words, only authorized users will be allowed in the VPN and the transferred data are fully encrypted. This means that the HADOPI could not know that a member of ipredator is exchanging illegal data.

The main question is how many people will be ready to spend 5€ per month? Furthermore, if successful then the Pirate bay will have created one of the largest VPN infrastructure.

In any case, the graduated response will probably generate several actions

  • Movement towards encryption
  • Apparition of private protected small P2P networks with private trackers
  • Poisoning by the tracker sites of their tracker lists

Tax and recordable Blu Ray

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The French commission Albis defines the tax for each recordable media. This tax is supposed to compensate the private use. The tax is transferred to content owners.

The commission has announced the expected tax for recordable BluRay disc. It will be 12.40€ (about $15) for 100GB, 6.20€ for 50GB and 3.10€ for 25GB. This value has been extrapolated from taxes on other media such DVD RW.

This high levy may slow down the adoption of recordable BluRay in the French market. The most probable scenario is that many French customers will order it on Internet in other countries (without the tax).

Ideally, an economic analysis should drive the value of the tax. If the tax is too high, then other sources will become more interesting and the content owners will loose money. If the tax is at a price acceptable for customers, then they will use French suppliers and content owners will earn money.

Olivier BOMSEL explains the economics of the graduated response

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Olivier BOMSEL, French economist, has always presented interesting views on the media industry. Thus, he has been invited to participate to the French commission Olivennes. The outcomes of this commission have given the basis for the French graduated response.

It was normal that Olivier justifies the outcomes. In Decreasing copyright enforcement costs: the scope of a graduated response, he explains why it is an economically rationale decision.

Section 3 is my preferred one. He explains why free riding on copyright content was an incentive for a strong roll-out of broadband. ISPs had no incentive to fight piracy. According to him, once broadband successfully deployed, a second phase starts. ISP search new revenues through paid distribution. Butt due to piracy, cost of content raised. ISP have now some incentives to fight piracy.

Section 4 explains the graduated response. The purpose is to increase the probability to be caught, thus through fear have a deterrent effect.

With the French case, he shows that the ISPs will bear the cost of this fight and not the content owners. One interesting application of the polluters pay principle.

This section is less convincing. Nevertheless, the paper is highly recommendable.

Warner threatens French Fansubbers

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On 17th February, Warner Bros. entertainment France SA sent a mail to the administrators of the main French sites of fansubbers. Fansubbing consists to translate and write subtitles for TV series or movies. Typically, it results in a file with extension .srt that can read with most players such as vlc.

Clearly Warner indicates that subtitles are protected by the copyright laws.

En effet, est constitutive des délits prévus et sanctionnés par les articles L.122-4 et L.335-2 à L.335-10 du Code de la Propriété Intellectuelle (”CPI”) toute reproduction, représentation, mise à disposition du public, adaptation, traduction et/ou transformation d’œuvres protégées, sans autorisation des titulaires de droits.

What is the reaction of these sites? The site all-abou-subs has decided to favorably answer the request of Warner. But, they just removed the fansubs of the series mentioned by Warner in its mail. Other sites, such as sub-way, Forom, SerieBox or Subbers In Black do even not mentioned Warner’s threat.

Will Warner France escalate its threat with more legal actions? Is it worthwhile? It is rather easy to find TV series with French subtitles on the P2P networks sometimes even the day after the first broadcast (sometimes with broken translation :Happy: )