France negotiates payment to ISPs to identify «pirates»

French replace P2P networks with hosting sites

Last month the French government launched the plan to identify users «guilty» of downloading illegal content on the Internet, following the legislation already approved, known as the Hadopi Law. In view of the refusal of some ISPs to provide the data, the executive has now agreed to pay for administrative work.

According to Le Point, the amount of the agreement with the ISP Free will have been fixed, and it defines that 65 cents will be paid for each internet user identified by the operator. According to the newspaper’s accounts, the state may have to pay 12 million euros with the measure.

The Ministry of Culture has already denied the value, admitting that it is still in negotiations with this operator of Internet services for Free to yield to the identification of «pirates».

The amount of compensation to the ISPs who accessed the plan is also under negotiation, but the ministry does not commit to any amount.

As predicted, this week the first notices began to be sent to Internet users identified as alleged copyright violators. Numericable and Bouygues Telecom are said to have been the first operators to advance the notices, followed by SFR and Orange.

It should be remembered that the Hadopi Law provides that ISPs have to pay a fine for each internet user they refuse to identify, but some operators complain that this process has high administrative costs, requiring the Government to have a kind of administrative fee. Free has been the most reluctant operator, causing discomfort to the government and competition.

The warnings that have started to be sent to Internet users are the first step in a process that could lead to the disconnection of the Internet connection.