IPretorian Blog, Internet Privacy Protector

It has happened, EU Parliament adopted Gallo Report – controversal resolution for harsh restrictions on intellectual property infringements. France example we wrote about earlier is now likely to be copied to other EU countries as well.

It seems like nobody in EU Parliament does not notice or care, that HADOPI and other law alike  are based on wrong assumptions ignoring fact, that IP address does not clearly identify it’s owner, and can be used by different person at a time.  IP addres is like a rental car, can be used by many people legally, but if someone will rob a bank using it – does a rental car company is to blame for it?

Entertainment industry wasn’t able to turn back a river with a stick, they will try to do it now with a lash. Their agenda is very clear: “Either way, someone will pay“. Does it seems fair to You?

Read full story on TorrentFreak.

Six months after harsh HADOPI law – adoption of the three-strikes anti-piracy legislation was introduced in France, online piracy has increased significantly. A new study published by the University of Rennes shows that the critics are indeed right. The researchers looked into the habits of downloaders before and after the law was implemented. They found that instead of reducing piracy levels, the piracy rate actually went up by 3%. People just switched to other file-sharing services, not covered by Hadopi. Another blunder  of politicians making law about thing they lack basic understanding. We can only concur with TorrentFreak: “The answer to the increasing piracy rates worldwide is not legislation. Instead, the entertainment industry may accomplish much more by innovating and expanding their online business so that it meets the demands of today’s digital consumers.”

In Spain music group SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) lost in court of law case against Donkey link site elrincondejesus.com: judge Raul N. García Orejudo declared that both non-commercial file-sharing link sites and non-profit use of P2P networks are legal in Spain. “P2P networks are mere conduits for the transmission of data between Internet users, and on this basis they do not infringe rights protected by Intellectual Property laws,” he declared. Therefore, if an individual uses P2P networks like eDonkey or BitTorrent to obtain copyright material for non-profit reasons, the act is completely legal. Outcome of taking this case to cours is nothing short of a disaster for SGAE.

In Lithuania anti-piracy outfit LANVA has lost its case against a user of the prominent BitTorrent tracker LinkoManija.net. Self-proclaimed investigators evidence consisted of a screenshot of peers as listed by uTorrent. The evidence was gathered in conjunction with a local police officer, but none of the parties involved was authorized to conduct an investigation of this kind. Citing faulty evidence judge closed the case and stated that LANVA had no right to collect and use the information they gathered. In addition, the judge ruled that such evidence gathering techniques have to be approved before they can be used.

Bottom line, a question to ‘copyright defenders’: end justifies the means?

France has cearly ambition to have most tightly montitored and “depolluted” Internet: The French lower house, the National Assembly, has just passed a security bill known as LOPPSI2, which is “grab bag of security items that includes state-sanctioned computer Trojans, a massive new database of citizen data (dubbed “Pericles”), and a requirement that ISPs start censoring sites on a government blacklist” – quoting ArsTechnica.

Infamous HADOPI was passed into French law last year, yet France president Nicolas Sarkozy is still not satisfied; in January speech[French PDF] said: “The more we automatically ‘depollute’ networks and servers from all sources of piracy, the less it will be necessary to resort to measures imposed on the ‘Internautes’ [French Internet users]. We must therefore try, without delay, filtering devices.”

In normal words: We will install Trojan virus on Your computer and record everything You do in Internet – but  it’s for Your own good, and tighter we will control You, less that control will be needed.

Mr. Sarko, do You hear yourself?

We are truly feeling for French Internauts, doing anything online will be real minefield. We can help, stay tuned.