Adieu, adieu to aggressive anti-piracy law
After taking an aggressive stance against illegal music downloads in 2009 by passing the “Hadopi” law (Haute Autorité pour la Diffusion des Oeuvres et la Protection des droits sur Internet), France has gone more laissez-faire, opting, instead, to abandon its robust copyright infringement law for automated fines. Under Hadopi, French internet users faced revocation of access if caught illegally downloading copyrighted material three times. Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French leader, saw full-bore enforcement as a way to prevent lawlessness on the net but the stringent measures he backed got caught up quickly in acrimony, with the Constitutional Council, the nation’s highest judicial body, declaring net access a basic human right. Hadopi’s basic effectiveness also has been called into question; it has resulted in but prosecution of a net user since its passage. Still, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a key French trade group, claimed that the law’s mere introduction led to a 22.5 percent increase in purchases on Apple’s iTunes (instead of, it is presumed, comparable illegal downloading activity). In a press release, French officials announced the nation now would focus on penalizing “commercial piracy” and websites profiting from piracy. Aurélie Filippetti, the minister of culture and communication, has called the three-strike system “totally inappropriate punishment.” In its place, France will put in an automatic system that assesses fines, starting at €60 and increasing with the number...
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