It looks like a combination of ACTA and HADOPI is coming soon to EU. If you have not heard about them don’t be surprised. There is no social consultation in that matter in any country, all information regarding who and how is planning to change our online life is secret. Soon everyone will look for a VPN internet access.
Negotiations between ISP and copyright owners
According to the French PCINpact, some classified negotiations are being held with the support of European Commission between Internet Service Providers and copyright owners. It is possible that much stricter rules of internet usage will be introduced for all EU countries with the omission of all democracy rules. Companies like IFPI, ETNO, EuroIspa, Vivendi, Virgin Media, BT, Ofcom and also Amazon, Google, and Yahoo! are part of this action.
What do they want?
Apparently, copyrights holders wish for monitoring and filtering of internet traffic. All websites that will be marked to hold illegal material (or the ones that are a middleman) should be cut off (if they are in EU) or access to those sites will be denied.
Another plan is to closely watch every internet user, just in case illegal actions are performed. It is like in everyday life there would be a policeman following our every step and watching our every move. Just in case we would do something illegal.
The result?
Once the new law is introduced a lot of people in EU would receive letters with a warning (or bill) like French internet users because of their HADOPI initiative.
The Impact of Hadopi and MegaUpload Closure on VPNLifeguard Downloads
VPNLifeguard recently published some interesting stats that show an important increase of the application downloads related to the introduction of Hadopi in 2010 and the recent MegaUpload closure.
What is VPNLifeguard
VPNLifeguard is a free application that makes sure your computer does not access the Internet when your VPN connection drops. Thus it prevents unsecured connections after your VPN disconnects. The application is very useful for browsing or goes behind a P2P VPN without being exposed during disconnection issues.
Advantages of VPNLifeguard
- It’s free!
- Blocks P2P traffic in case of disconnection of the VPN
- Protects browsers (and other apps) for possible disconnection of your VPN
- Supports VPN protocols (PPTP – L2TP) that appear in the “network connections” for Windows.
- Automatically reconnects the apps
VPNLifeguard stats
The stats published by VPN Lifeguard show that both Hadopi and the closure of Megaupload increased the number of downloads. This is the case for VPN Lifeguard and it’s probably the case for the major VPN services list.
All these anti-piracy actions are more and more driving the Internet users towards anonymity (hide IP) applications. Recently, TorrentFreak reported that 15% of US file-sharers are using a VPN or a proxy service. I’m sure that this number will heavily increase in the next months both in the US and Europe.
What do you think about the new possible law? Do you think it will be adopted? Do you use VPN to protect your privacy and anonymity from your ISP? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.