[x-pubpol] France defangs its anti-piracy law, removes disconnection penalty

[Joly MacFie]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/france-defangs-its-anti-piracy-law-removes-disconnection-penalty/

After years of questionable effectiveness, France’s notorious three-strikes
anti-piracy law<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/03/french-anti-p2p-law-toughest-in-the-world/>—known
by its French acronym, Hadopi—has had its most controversial provision
removed.

On Tuesday, the French Ministry of Culture announced
<http://bit.ly/184JNgj> (Google
Translate) that it would be canceling the most severe penalty in the entire
scheme: disconnecting someone from the Internet. How many times was this
penalty actually enforced over the years that Hadopi has been on the books?
Exactly once.

In September 2012, a man in Eastern France was convicted of a third
strike after
downloading unauthorized copies of two Rihanna
songs<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/09/france-convicts-first-person-under-anti-piracy-law-even-though-he-didnt-do-it/>,
even though his soon-to-be-ex-wife was the one who admitted in court that
she had done it. Frustrated with the entire Hadopi system, the unnamed man
from Eastern France voluntarily took his entire household offline. It took
until last month<https://torrentfreak.com/france-disconnects-first-file-sharer-from-the-internet-130613/>
for a
single user to be fined €600 ($771) and kicked offline for 15
days<http://bit.ly/184IDSa> (Google
Translate)—the first time disconnection had been ordered after the many
millions of warnings that Hadopi has sent French Internet users. Only a
small handful of French users have even made it to strike three.

Since the new administration of President François Hollande, who was
elected last year, Hadopi has been on the ropes. Hollande
campaigned<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/04/french-presidential-candidate-against-three-strikes-law-kinda-sorta/>
in
part on shutting Hadopi down (mostly), and later hisculture minister told a
French magazine<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/08/french-anti-p2p-agency-hadopi-likely-to-get-shut-down/>
that
Hadopi had “not fulfilled its mission.” The
agency'sbudget<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/10/french-anti-p2p-agencys-funding-to-fall-by-23-percent-in-2013/>
was
eventually cut.

In its statement <http://bit.ly/184JNgj> (Google Translate) about the
change, the Ministry of Culture says that cutting someone off from the
Internet is “totally unadapted to our world” and that the new approach
illustrates a “change in orientation” for the government’s enforcement
measures. Hadopi will now focus more on pirate and unauthorized streaming
sites<http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/frances-three-strikes-anti-piracy-regime-may-target-streaming-sites/>—and
less on individual users.

-- 
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