French Mag Auto Plus Raided for Leaking Renault New Car Details
The offices of French magazine Auto Plus were raided on Tuesday by officials, accusing the magazine of industrial espionage against auto maker Renault.
When Auto Plus published pictures and details of a new model not due to launch for another three years, Renault retaliated with a complaint to authorities resulting in an investigation being launched since last August.
Just this past April Auto Plus published images of the next generation Renault Megane III, little did they know that an investigation against them was under way.
With the confiscation of computers, documents and the detainment of Auto Plus journalist, Bruno Thomas, two of the country's biggest journalists' unions, SNJ and the press section of Force Ouvriere have voiced strong complaints about prosecutors breaching reporters' source confidentiality particularly to non automotive sources.
Laurent Chiapello, editor of Auto Plus told Reuter, "By gaining access to the computers of our journalists, they gain access to all our sources and that poses a real problem to our way of working independently and not tied to the carmakers,"
"It's intolerable that journalists should be treated like criminals when they are just doing their job of informing the public," SNJ said in a statement.
Renault said the complaint was intended to protect its intellectual property.
"It kills creativity, you may as well just give our models to the newspapers and our competitors. What's the point of doing any research?" a spokesman said.
"The idea is not to attack Auto Plus but to cut off the sources that feed it, to find the source inhouse."
Dangerous words from the Renault spokesman, sounding like a shakedown of Auto Plus to expose the mole within Renault – ultimately their own responsibility to the detriment of Auto Plus.
Further reports, put an unnamed Renault employee also under investigation for leaking pictures to the French magazine.
yeah i agree. but you have to look at it from an intelectual property point of view too. there must have been some foul play, all manufacturers allow scoops to go on in magazine, but there must be something there for renault to cry foul play. might not be as clear cut as it seems. however in defence of the magazine, its hardly the scoop of the century when you look at the car!
Shocking?!
Such a big fuss over such a little event. Spy car photographer Hans Lehmann has been doing this for decades. So what? It?s only a new Renault - and that's a little event!!!
Think the French Authorities should be more concerned with more serious issues. Like corruption of their Nationals in the French government of even the European Parliament, which is, I understand, quite rife, instead of chasing car photos!
I think anyone would agree that a car out in public, right at the later stages of its development, is fair game. But this guy seems to be releasing really early information at a time when competitors could/would have time to respond. That is industrial espionage, fair and square.
if lehmann worked for renault hed be in jail, bud, get a clue
...We shouldn't have helped them in World War 2. Then they'll all be speaking German now...
if there's an employee leaking confidential info to the press it is illegal and a sort of betrayal, especially considering this individual isn't doing it on car enthusiast grounds but monetary ones, and eventhough these actions were somehow extreme, you have to take into account at least two important factors: 1. most car mags belong to a big editorial group with blurry ties to some automaker in particular 2. asian competitors are known for their ability to copy and release their products before the original does, with all the implicit harm to the original idea and business, especially in this competitive category
Confidential information...?? Please elaborate.
What, photos of a pretty much ready for market model? Technical details divulged? Top secrets released to the competition??
L'Auto Plus has been doing this sort of thing for, as far as since i can remember reading the magazine over a decade or so.
The employee may have been guilty but the behaviour of the authorites is infringing on the human rights of the magazine, which is unacceptable, and may have been used to discover who that employee is in the first place.
"if there's an employee leaking confidential info to the press it is illegal..."
Indeed it is, and publishing that confidential information makes the magazine a part of the crime. As usual they defend themselves by saying "they are just doing their job of informing the public" but this is totally unacceptable. This is not a political secret people must know. This is about business, industry and commerce, and nobody, even the media don't have the right to publish confidential industrial information.
What you mean Clio registration number 2286 WWB 76?? Waterfront setting, minor mountain background, parked on red and beige bricks? Send me you email address and I?ll email it to you?
?Complaint to authorities? is not sued the magazine. The pictures above were published AFTER that date!
No..this is not right. The free press is dead!
Guess none of the L'AutoPLus magazine staff are going to buy one, then...??
Or even another Renault for a very long time...? :)
they wouldnt be getting angry about it if the "gentlemans agreement" hadnt been broken. the magazine has overstepped the mark i suspect....
It's one thing to publish spy photographs of a car the will be coming up with in a couple of months, but it's total diffrent if your going to publish detail photographs of a car thats not appearing in a couple of years.
I say good got Renault, to put their foot down. Otherwise whats next give the technical specs to ever car company. thats what give the car commpanies the edge.
The car will be launched at this year's 2008 Paris Autoshow in a couple of month's time. It's a pretty much a ready for market model. (NB: The second paragraph of the above text appears to be incorrect).
When you do manage to see it at the Paris show, you'll probably wonder what all the fuss was about.
It states in the article that the car at the time of publish was still three years before production.
"When Auto Plus published pictures and details of a new model not due to launch for another three years"
Is that not the second parargraph in the above text or article?
And what did I write?
you talk as if those pics were published last night, but according to the info it was leaked a cpl of years earlier
These photos were first made public earlier this year around June 2008, when I first saw it, for the car?s launch later this year.
The article above also mentions (third paragraph) that the French magazine published photos of this car in April 2008, which sounds about right to me.
I?m not sure what the (confusing and misleading) second paragraph of the article above is talking about. Nothing big was ever reported 3 or so years ago. I doubt the car?s design would have been finalized 3 years ago anyway. Otherwise suspect the Authorities would have pounced a lot sooner!
if they sued the magazine around august 2007 how could this be true?? actually those pics look like an early prototype, you probably mistake these with the clio facelift, also leaked by the same individual to this mag.. who wants to have a traitor within its ranks anyway, get over it
No, these are identical photos I saw earlier this year. I once owned a Clio in Paris. I think I would know what a Clio (even a new one) looks like.
Where does the article say the magazine was sued in August 2007? Also, think there are "traitors" in all car companies but only Renault behaves this way
..forgot to mention... Those Clio spy shots showed a car in blue and it was not a photo but an artists impression drawing
nah they were actual shots of the cuerrent clios facelift in the same kind of setting
"...Renault retaliated with a complaint to authorities resulting in an investigation being launched since last August."
Ck314 - you mean Clio registration number 2286 WWB 76?? Waterfront setting, minor mountain background, parked on red and beige bricks? Send me you email address and I?ll email it to you?
?Complaint to authorities? is not sued the magazine. The pictures above were published AFTER that date!
Also: Check out this link to WorldCarFans article dated April 30, 2008: http://www.worldcarfans.com/9080430.005/renault-megane-iii-leaked
Picture looks familiar? Note second paragraph of that article as well as date of article!
Also: check out this link to Autoblog dated April 29, 2008 http://www.autoblog.com/2008/04/29/renault-megane-leaked-in-french-mag/
Picture looks familiar? Note latter half of FIRST paragraph and date of article!
well, if a court ordered an investigation renault obviously had to sue someone in the 1st place, and even if it happened one year later its pointless.. there's an employee lacking confidential info that will fall into the competition's hands, and that ain't fair game.. for instance, those renderings displaying the megane coupe and scenic look very real, as in coming from the company, and those cars arent due any time soon, perhaps 2010-2011 for the scenic
You keep mentioning an employee? that is not my point here.
You originally wrote:
?you talk as if those pics were published last night, but according to the info it was leaked a cpl of years earlier?
I think I have answer that point. If you would like to disprove those photos then kindly show me the photos that were shown those 3 years ago, and I tell you it was NOT the one shown above in the article, which you insist it is?
Also, feel free to keep watch for the launch of the Megane, shown in the above article photo, at this year's 2008 Paris Motor show?
"if a court ordered an investigation renault obviously had to sue someone in the 1st place"
-- umm, NO!
i never stated those pics had to be the ones that forced renault to sue, i just said they looked like early prototypes and could have been leaked to the magazine or other sources way before they published them, so this whole immature argument is pointless, who cares if it was the megane or some other model... no court would have taken such measures for posting pics of a car a cpl weeks before its release, try to be logic okay?? ps: the megane scenic will be launched quite later
the front end of the car looks terrible... I think Renault is complaining about consumers now knowing that they will launch such an ugly-looking car in a few years, and thus lower their sales on this particular model...
Wow. If you bought Autoexpress, you'll know this is really old news.
SPAM! who cares. like I'm gonna pay money for something i can get for free on dozens of sites
yeah, old like when my subscription to autoexpress arrives via post and all of the stories i seen weeks earlier on the net elsewhere. Right, you're making a whole lot of sense. You'll get your monies worth if you rollup your issue of AE and smoke it.
Nothing new about this car..it's just the clone of Nissan Versa....What's the big deal?? I say Renault should be boycotted from all the car mag.
The Renault platform was there long before the Versa was.
personally i think that renault is taking this abit far... come on renault this hapens all the time and u dont see other car companies making a big fuss over it come on grow up renault!