Who Is After François Desouche?

I took a short break from blogging after François Desouche returned. The ultimate cause of the disappearance of FDS and another right-wing site called ILYS (I like your style) has not been determined. There is still speculation about sabotage by enemies of these sites, but nothing definite. In fact, the latest note from FDS itself is more confusing than ever.

Initially, the following explanation appeared soon after FDS returned:

Wednesday morning, very early, we realized that François Desouche had been removed from the Internet by its host. The reason given was that articles subject to copyright had been partially reprinted by FDS without authorization.

A few hours later our Facebook account was suspended.

The night before we had received an e-mail from Eric Mettout, editor in chief of l'Express.fr:

"Hello. You post some of our articles at your site, without having the basic courtesy to ask us for authorization. The latest one was on Kanye West. Please remove all of our articles from your database, and keep me informed."

Another message from him on Wednesday afternoon at Twitter:

"fdesouche was suspended the day I asked that thief not to reprint and truncate our articles on his rag. Too bad."

FDS then lists the measures it will take to prevent a repeat of this week's mishap: it will publish as few quotations as possible, it will publish a title and a link and then print only the best of its readers' comments.

Note: This struck me as odd, because FDS usually posts an excerpt and a link anyway. The full article is always available at the source. Furthermore, do those messages from l'Express sound legitimate? I guess they are, since I have no news of a denial.

You can read more about Atlanta-born rapper Kanye West at Wikipedia.

FDS gloats just a bit at the disappointment the Left must have felt when the site was restored, and wonders what exactly is wrong with being concerned about France's future and with exposing contradictions, ambiguities and errors.

A second post at FDS, dated October 28, gives more information, but it is still very inconclusive and even mysterious:

According to our information, the American host of FDS was contacted by one Gabriel Dufflot, an executive at Agence France Press (AFP), regarding twelve articles reprinted without the agency's authorization. Following this injunction, the American host suspended the site, until FDS removed the articles. This has been accomplished. The host then restored the site.

So, it was AFP that intervened to protect the copyright of its dispatches. Except that... several AFP dispatches, partially reprinted, are still at the FDS site. Why were just those twelve links singled out by the press agency?

AFP was contacted and averred that no action was ever taken against François Desouche. "If there are sites that do not respect the copyright, we have a standard procedure with letters from lawyers, warnings and a meeting," explained Erik Monjalous, business administrator for AFP. That was never the case for FDS. The person in charge of "pirating" at AFP, Luca Giovannini confirmed that there was never any legal action taken against this extreme-right website and that contacting the host would be "the last resort, something that has never been done so far."

Moreover, no one by the name of Gabriel Dufflot works for AFP. How could the American host have been duped by an individual passing himself off as part of AFP? The mystery remains, and those that hold to a conspiracy theory are enjoying themselves immensely.

I cannot answer any of these questions. First, it is l'Express that accuses FDS of printing articles without authorization - a ridiculous accusation, since FDS is a blog and does what blogs do - it prints excerpts of articles from the MSM. Then it is Agence France Press that contacts the American host - except that Agence France Press denies this completely and insists that had there been a copyright problem, a procedure would have been followed long before the site was actually suspended. The fact that Kanye West's name was mentioned may be of no importance at all, or it may mean something. Could West have been outraged by an article about him at FDS, and contacted the American host? This is wild speculation. Where is Hercule Poirot when we need him?