France Shifts Piracy Focus From Individuals to Websites
30 August 2013
The French government has terminated the provision of the copyright piracy law that allowed the government to block internet access of repeat online copyright infringers. The provision had allowed courts to block internet access after three transgressions; other sanctions, including fines, will remain in effect.
In May 2013, a nine-member panel, lead by former Canal Plus chairman Pierre Lescure, recommended shuttering the French agency administering the three strikes system after spending tens of millions of euros while cutting off only one user’s internet access and enforcing just one €150 fine, according to a report on the TorrentFreak website.
TorrentFreak reported that Lescure’s report suggested that instead of primarily targeting citizens, France should refocus its anti-infringement drive towards more organized for-profit sources of piracy. Search engines and advertising agencies should be encouraged to help in the fight, but domain seizures and blocking were not advised due to the risk of causing collateral damage.
In July 2013, French Minister of Culture Aurelie Filippetti issued a statement carried in a Reuters story which said that “this measure is necessary because it ends a penalty that is not suited to today’s world, and because it illustrates the new orientation of the government’s efforts to fight online piracy.”
When the law was passed in 2009, France was among the first nations – along with Australia, New Zealand and South Korea – to implement the three-strikes law in which users are sent multiple notifications about their alleged copyright infringement before being fined or have their internet access blocked.
France has only terminated one person’s online access, in June 2013, but the lack of punishment is largely attributed to a shift to streaming videos and music on legal websites such as YouTube or Grooveshark.
