PARIS — Three strikes and you're in if you're a VPN service.
Demand for encryption in France is on the rise, following the government's passage of the HADOPI anti-piracy law, which calls for two warnings for Internet copyright violators, then disconnection if a third infringement occurs.
As reported in April by AVN.com, the same thing happened when Sweden passed its IPRED law; VPN demand went up, including The Pirate Bay offering a protective encryption service "IPREDATOR" -- an obvious play on IPRED. VPN – a virtual private network – employs encryption technology to keep a user's IP address from being discovered, especially while using peer-to-peer networks, uploading or downloading.
According to P2P Blog, French Internet rights activists are launching a VPN offering called IDOPAH, which currently in private beta.
TechDirt calls the moves of each side is a virtual "cat-and-mouse game." It's that or at least, Internet checkers (though clearly not chess): Copyright holders push for more legislation to protect their properties, Internet users get angrier (though they may well be in the wrong) and the issue remains far more complex than either side may realize, with governments engendering public wrath if they side with business and visa-versa.
The big question here is, stepping away from issues of copyright violations, how can a truly anonymous VPN services be provided without further enabling the distribution of child porn? The IDOPAH developers didn't have an answer to that one when asked on their French blog.
