French National Assembly Liable for Gross Negligence in HADOPI?

[DaBees-Knees]

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/90445/french-national-assembly-liable-for-gross-negligence-in-hadopi/

Normally, we wouldn’t make fun of a website for being insecure, but we can make an exception in this case. It turns out, the website for the French National Assembly is vulnerable to an iFrame hack. This means that anyone with enough web coding skill could use the site as a launching pad for copyright infringement – leaving the French government website liable for “gross negligence” as defined in HADOPI.

Under the HADOPI law in France, every internet user must be responsible for securing their internet connection. If they do not secure their connection (i.e. WiFi), they could be liable for the copyright infringement that takes place (including fines).

As we’ve noted numerous times in the past, an IP address is a very flimsy piece of evidence because of the possibility of someone having their internet connection hacked. Additionally, when people argue that tougher copyright laws will spark innovation, the argument is often countered with, “it will spark innovation all right… innovation to circumvent the law!” It’s interesting to see this happening so quickly in practice.

Bluetoff, a French blogger, reportedly made an interesting discovery (Google Translation). It turns out that the official website for the French National Assembly isn’t the most secure website in the world. The website accepts Javascript and iFrames – iFrames have been getting quite a lot of press these days due to what people with malicious intentions can do with them on unsuspecting websites.

Presumably, the idea with injecting an iFrame in the website for the French National Assembly is to use the website as a proxy to download infringing material. When copyright holders use the IP address, the IP address would lead back to the government. All websites have an IP address underneath their domain name. Since the government failed to secure their website, that makes them liable for “gross negligence” under HADOPI. Ultimately, this means the government is liable for infringement thanks to the very law they passed.

This is, certainly some very creative thinking to say the least. While it is unlikely anything will really become of this, it is rather amusing to see the French government passing legislation on the internet, yet can’t even secure their own websites from the law after.

If the French Government isn't very careful they are going to finish up with egg on their face.