France : the HADOPI Law signed
Since the begining of the 2000s internet has been seen as a threat to the music and film industry (Shapiro & Varian, 1999). They have started to react with different trials against Napster or Kazaa for example. The result of those trials does not seem to be really efficient. When a Peer 2 Peer service closes another one open after that.
The music and film associations had to find a way to counter attack and stop the fell of their sells. Instead of creating new interesting offers on the web, they have preferred to fight the “hackers” who download illegal files.
In France, the different music and film industry associations have started an important lobbying on the government since a few years to pass a law that will help them to fight against illegal downloading of copyrighted files.
Those years of lobbying lead to the creation of what people called the HADOPI (Haute autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur internet) law from the name of the authority which is going to be in charge of controlling the exchange of copyrighted files over the internet (Le Monde, 2010, January 4).
For the customers this will consist of:
• An email of warning after the first illegal downloading
• A letter of warning after the second illegal downloading
• The shut down of the internet connection after the third illegal downloading
After the shutdown of the line, the customer may also be sued by the music and film association for breaking the laws about copyrighted files.
This law brings several problems.
First, the customer will be punished without seeing any judge and being able to defend him or herself. This is against the bases of the French right.
Then, the customer can be punished twice for the same thing. First is connection is going to be shut down and then he can be sued by the music and film associations. It is also against the basic principles of the French right.
The fact to shut down the connection brings also a problem of the need of an internet connection in the actual world. Is it possible to live normally without an internet connection? For example people use their connections to pay their taxes, apply for national competitive exams… Some politician think that an internet connection should be seen as a basic need such as a phone line and so should not be shut down so easily.
There is also a problem of safety. More and more people rely on their internet connection for their phone services (VoIP) and do not have a regular phone line. If their connection is shut down, how they are going to be able to call the emergency services in case of problem?
Finally, the music and film associations are going to pay a firm to track the exchange of copyrighted files on the internet. This firm is going to have to ask the internet providers to link the IP address to a physical person. It is not free for the providers to do that. It will cost several million euros each year. The government says that the providers are going to take care of those costs but the providers reply that they never signed any agreement that claim they are going to have to support those fees. For the moment no one knows who is going to support those fees. A solution will have to be found soon as the first controls are supposed to start in April 2010 (Le Monde, 2010, january 8).
Those problems are just the main ones. Several other ones have been brought by consumer association, technology experts…
This law is an example of how the different French governments (from both sides) had and have problems to create laws dealing with internet because of a lack of expertise in the telecommunication domain and a lack of reactivity against a world that evolves every 6 months.
Le Monde. (2010, January 4). Les décrets organisant l'Hadopi publiés au "Journal officiel". Retrieved January 23, 2010, from leMonde.fr: http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2010/01/04/les-decrets-organisant-l-hadopi-publies-au-journal-officiel_1287124_651865.html
Le Monde. (2010, January 8). Les premiers courriers de l'Hadopi envoyés "entre avril et juillet". Retrieved January 23, 2010, from leMonde.fr: http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2010/01/08/les-premiers-courriers-de-la-loi-hadopi-envoyes-entre-avril-et-juillet_1289396_651865.html
Shapiro, C., & Varian, H. R. (1999). Information Rules. Harvard Business School.