So where are have the infringers gone? 5 percent had completely stopped illegal downloading since Hadopi became a law, yet another 10 percent had abandoned P2P and went even more underground with alternative methods. These alternative methods are actually ‘safe’ areas, even though they’re still getting free content. Users are flocking to online streaming and direct download sites (like Megaupload and Rapidshare), which technically aren’t included in the Hadopi law.

Also the study concluded that illegal downloaders are actually some of the biggest purchasers of online content, and suggests that Hadopi threatens legal paid-for downloads. Project coordinator Sylvain Dejean remarked, “If the main intention of this law is to give a boost to legal downloads, there is a big risk it could prove extremely counter-productive”.

So really all the new law has done was educate illegal downloaders in new ways to get hold of infringing content for free. Deterring people from downloading illegally without covering all the bases is pretty useless, and unfair in a sense. According to Les Echos, 2.7 million people in France use P2P, but a further 3 million use these other methods…so who is to say more than half of the illegal downloaders are allowed to be spared for using the ‘right’ methods?. The study also anticipates further subordination and even deeper attempts at anonymity like closed circuit newsgroup memberships and further proxy use.

Also in the news, notoriously anti-regulation ISP TalkTalk brought forth their own study last week that reports “80 percent of those aged 18-34 in its new Opinium survey said they would switch to using methods which are undetectable” . This was mainly in response to the Digital Economy Bill making its way through Parliament, as the UK is close to becoming the second country to fully adapt a three-strikes policy.

Another interesting survey last week was carried out by GlobeScan for the BBC between December 2009 and January 2010 to 27,973 people across 26 countries. The questions focused on their usage, concerns and feelings on the Internet. The main findings found that 79 percent of all Web users worldwide agreed access to the Internet should be a fundamental right. Also half of the surveyors believed that “the Internet should never be regulated by any level of government anywhere”.

With countries like Finland and Estonia already ruling that access is a human right and international bodies like the EU and UN pushing for universal net access…what does this mean for the three-strikes legislation currently being favored in France, UK and Canada? Well for EU countries, there is already some contention to the three-strikes plan.

Last week an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was being shopped around the European parliament, but was promptly dismissed. EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht told ZDNet UK, “We are not supporting and will not accept that an eventual ACTA agreement creates an obligation to disconnect people from the internet because of illegal downloads”.

So what is France to do? If they really want the three-strikes plan to work there should be more legislation to tackle unlicensed sites that act as ‘cyberlockers’ when it comes to downloading infringing content. If this doesn’t happen they should wave their white flag and surrender because they won’t be able to curb piracy. File-sharers are simply getting more creative and anonymous with their downloading and it will become even more difficult to deter them.

For now however France seems to be all talk and no walk and the people are taking advantage of that by continuing to download as if nothing happened. As of now the three-strikes plan hasn’t really been fully implemented as France has not sent out any letters to users. After those go out and users start becoming intimidated, it’ll be interesting to see how piracy numbers change after that.