updated 08:30 am EDT, Thu July 14, 2011
France's HADOPI laws yet to make an impact
France's HADOPI "three-strikes" anti-piracy measures have led to the identification of 18 million alleged illegal file-sharers over the past 9 months. However, due to the high volumes of pirates being tracked, only 470,000 of the 18 million traced have received an infringement warning to date. Those who have received a second-strike total 20,000, while only 10 have been issued with a third warning. A judge is currently investigating the 10.
If found guilty by the judge, the alleged offenders could receive a 1500 Euro fine or lose their Internet connection temporarily. The laws have been controversial for a number of reasons, including their cost. The cost of managing the enforcement program is enormous, yet nine months after its introduction, not one person has had their Internet connection pulled.
Further, a study conducted earlier this year showed that piracy had actually increased slightly after the introduction of the laws. Heavy downloaders actually increased their activity by 3 percent. These generally more savvy users simply by-passed the tracking methods by using proxies and VPN's so that their IP address could no longer be tracked. [via Torrent Freak]