Hadopi, the French agency charged with implementing France's stringent "three strikes" copyright enforcement program, has released new statistics that shed light on the logistical challenges of getting a nation of 65 million people to stop sharing infringing content online.

The volume of alleged infringement is even higher than earlier reports suggested. More than 18 million complaints have been submitted so far, and Hadopi hasn't been able to keep up. So far, only 470,000 initial warning e-mails have been sent to French Internet users. Only a small fraction of those—about 20,000—have received second notices, and around 10 French Internet users have received their third "strike" and are now facing possible penalties.

"We don't want to prosecute people"

In an interview with Ars, a Hadopi spokesperson said there were two reasons it hasn't sent out more notices. One was technical. "The system we're using is a prototype," he said, with limited capacity. Work has begun on a more robust system, and "we think it'll be ready at the end of the year."

But Hadopi also said that it has held off on sending out second and third notices because it wants to give Internet users time to change their ways. "We don't want to prosecute people," said the spokesperson. "We just want to push people to change when, knowing it or not, they are committing piracy. So we're trying to give people the time to understand what they are doing and to change before prosecuting them."

Another reason for the apparent backlog is that, in some case, Hadopi has received numerous notices for the same user. "If we get the same notice, from the same people, the same week, with the same software, it's counted as just one notice, not 10, or 15, or 20," said the spokesperson.

This means that (contrary to some reports), it's probably not true that nearly a third of all French Internet users have been caught sharing files. Hadopi couldn't tell us the exact number of subscribers responsible for the 18 million complaints, because it needs ISP help to identify who had a given IP address at a given point in time, and it's way behind in seeking that information. So far, it has only sent ISPs about a million requests, leaving more than 17 million to go.

Hadopi also released statistics on how users respond to notices. Only seven percent of users have responded to the first notice (which comes by e-mail), while 15 percent responded to the second (which is sent both as email and snailmail). The agency tells Ars that angry responses are in the minority. Many people call simply for technical information. "Some people didn't know that they were using the P2P software," said the spokesperson. "When they're launching the computer, the software can launch at the same time."

Hadopi declined to say exactly how many users have reached the third and final stage of the three-strikes process, saying only that it's around 10 people. And it could be a while before any of them face disconnection of their network access. First, a user is entitled to a hearing with the agency, which reviews the case and decides whether to refer it to a judge. Then the judge reviews the case, and if the judge decides a punishment is merited, there are two options. The judge can assess a fine of up to 1,500 euros or else can kick the user off the Internet for up to a month.

Beyond disconnection?

Hadopi faulted media outlets like Ars for focusing too much on the ultimate disconnection penalty. The agency insists that this is just one part of a broader copyright enforcement program, which in turn is just one of the agency's functions—others include promoting the availability of legal content and promoting Internet literacy.

We can appreciate that Hadopi has a broad mission, but the three strikes program, with its threat to actually disconnect people from the Internet over online infringement, is what has drawn worldwide attention to France's antipiracy program. For example, we've been covering American ISPs' recent tentative steps toward a "graduated response" strategy of their own. Those ISPs took great pains to distinguish their own policies from a French-style 3-strikes plan, promising that they would not spy on their users or disconnect them from the Internet. Disconnection as a sanction has almost come under attack from the United Nations and from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, both of which say the penalty is disproportionate to the offense.

Many countries have tried user education and promoting legal content, but France's sanctions are almost unique. We're curious to see how the system works out. So far, it looks like Hadopi is struggling to keep up with the massive volume of complaints—but perhaps more horsepower and better automation can actually keep up. Here in the US, ISPs have balked at doing even a few hundred IP address lookups a month in file-sharing lawsuits, saying they don't have the staff. French ISPs may need more automated systems of their own to respond to Hadopi's demands.