Is French ISP Free for real?

[DaBees-Knees]

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/44543

Has French ISP ‘Free’ really taken a stand against HADOPI, France’s anti-consumer cave-in to the entertainment cartels, by finding a way around their HADOPI Three Strikes ‘law’?

Or is it only cynical PR make-believe?

Certainly, UK ISP TalkTalk’s claim to be selflessly supporting its customers against the Big ‘Ole Baddies has served it well, generating much priceless ink and many bytes from the mainstream lamescream media.

But TalkTalk bends both ways, to be generous.

Meanwhile, “Billboard.biz understands that all France’s main ISPs agreed to cooperate with the exception of Free (Iliad Group), which declined to send the warning messages”, says Billboard, going on, “this follows a late August statement by Free saying it refused to do so it at its own expense.”

Hollywood and Big Music have so far been able to have the cost of their efforts to use national governments and police agencies as their personal copyright enforcers wholly borne by local taxpayers.

So why not ISPs as well?

“Free has said it tried to reach agreement with the government, so it remains to be seen how the authorities will respond.”

HADOPI hasn’t so far revealed how many warning letters it’s sent, and on the launch of the thteatening messages, “The [three-strikes] process goes on,” the story has HADOPI president Marie-Françoise Marais stating.

According to her, Free’s “lack of cooperation” means it’s “penalizing its subscribers” because they won’t receive an “initial email warning” in the event of [their alleged] “copyright infringement”, but “they will still receive a registered letter [in case of repeat infringement].”


         HADOPI president Marie-Françoise Marais

However, she added, the “dialog” with Free was continuing.

Something worth keeping an eye on. I mean the subject. Certainly not Marie-Françoise Marais.