3 Count: Counteroffer

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1: Google Made €50 Million Copyright Offer, French Publishers Want €100 million

First off today, Jeff Roberts at Paid Content writes that, according to the French newspaper Le Monde, Google attempted to settle its ongoing copyright dispute with French newspapers by offering €50 million ($66.6 million) but the publishers wanted something between €70 to €100 million instead.

Google’s deal would have been similar to one they struck with Belgian newspapers recently, which would have seen most of the money going to partnerships between Google and publishers and some of it being direct paid advertising.

The newspapers sued Google claiming that the search giant’s “Google News” tool infringed their copyrights by indexing, linking to and showing snippets of articles from the papers. The French government is also proposing an “Internet Tax” that would charge companies, like Google, a tax for personal data they collect and store.

2: ‘Mega’ Insecure: Kim Dotcom Defends Rebooted Megaupload Security

Next up today, Mathew Schwartz at InformationWeek reports that Kim Dotcom’s “Mega” launch may have been a smashing success but that security questions plague the service.

Mega, which was billed as the successor to Dotcom’s shuttered and seized Megaupload, aims to provide better security through client-side encryption that ensures even Mega administrators are unaware of what content is in user accounts. However, security problems, such as reports of weak encryption methods used and a hack that allows others to glean the account password from the confirmation emails the service sends.

Kim Dotcom, according to his Twitter account, will be offering a cash prize encryption challenge soon to help make Mega more secure.

3: Hadopi Plans Large File-Sharing Warning Increase For 2013

Finally today, Enigmax at Torrentfreak writes that Hadopi, the French organization that oversees the nation’s “three strikes” policy, has reported that, despite a funding cut of around 25%, whey will be sending out nearly double the number of letters in 2013, from over 600,000 in 2012 to an estimated 1.1 million in 2013.

The system works by having rightsholders monitor copyright infringement and then forwarding the information to Hadopi to have them send warning letters to ISP customers. After two warning letters, Hadopi can take additional action, including cutting of the user’s Internet access.

Hadopi also released a the results of a survey that says the system is working, noting that since the system’s launch in 2011 there has been a decrease in the number of users sharing content unlawfully and an increase in legitimate purchases.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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