One More Copyright Infringement, And HADOPI Must Disconnect Itself From The Net

The governmental body that oversees France’s “three-strikes” law, HADOPI, has already been caught once infringing on the copyright of others — by using a logo designed with unlicensed fonts. Now it’s been spotted using photographs without respecting the so-called “moral rights” of the photographer, which include the right to attribution (French original), absent on HADOPI’s site. Such moral rights are taken very seriously in France, where they are automatic, perpetual and cannot be waived (unlike in some other jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom.)

As with the earlier slip, the current example shows just how easy it is for someone to infringe on copyrights through error or oversight. Of course, HADOPI doesn’t accept either excuse when it’s a matter of sending out its famous warnings, or disconnecting people from the Net. So, in the spirit of fairness, it would be unjust to grant itself any leeway either.

That makes two strikes against it so far; let’s hope it’s more careful in the future, or it will obviously be forced to cut off its own Internet connection to set an example to the rest of France.

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