France promotes the three-strike scheme in Europe
(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)
With France taking over the presidency of the European Union on 1 July 2008,
the French Minister of Culture, Christine Albanel, wants to get a consensus
in the fight against p2p downloading by translating the French model to the
entire Europe.
Christine Albane presented on 19 June to the French Council of Ministers her
proposal for the controversial Internet and Creation law, initiated first by
Denis Olivennes, former CEO of Fnac, designed to fight online piracy, mainly
through the implementation of the so-called “three-strikes” scheme. A
newly-created independent authority, entitled HADOPI (Haute Autorité pour la
diffusion des oeuvres et la protection des droits sur Internet), is to be
responsible with issuing warnings and potentially cutting Internet
subscriptions in cases of infringements.
At the request of rights holder, HADOPI will have the power to demand from
ISPs the identity of copyright-infringing computer users, followed
afterwards by a three-step process. A warning by email will be first sent,
and in case the infringements persist, the warning will be sent by a
registered
letter. For the third infringement, HADOPI will be entitled to cut the
Internet access of the user for three up to 12 months. This period may be
shortened to one to three months if the infringer commits to stop the
alleged illicit downloading.
The law has been approved by the French Government and it will be debated in
the two chambers of the Parliament. Despite Albanel’s confidence in the
draft law and her determination to make it pass, the law is facing a large
range of opposition starting with the European Parliament, CNIL, ISOC,
reservations from the State Council, ARCEP and ending with criticism from
parliamentarians, public opinion, access suppliers and press.
Having this in view, it seems SACEM (Société des auteurs, compositeurs et
éditeurs de musique) is already thinking of an alternative. As stated by
Bernard Miyet, President of SACEM board of directors, the organisation is
not thinking of a global licence but of a contribution from the ISPs. “When
you are a cable distributor such as Numericable and you transport
programmes, you pay royalties. When you are a satellite platform, it is the
same. On the Internet side, the ISPs have succeeded in avoiding any legal or
financial responsibility or, it is well known, that they created all their
development on music” he said.
There is no discussion however of balancing the fee for the ISPs with a new
right for the Internet users as in the case of the global licence that would
allow Internet users to download music and make it available free for
everybody. The global licence would also increase the revenues of the music
creators and artists but not those of the music distributors or recording
companies who are afraid of loosing control and therefore part of the
market.
While in France the HADOPI law is under dispute and although the European
Parliament has initially opposed the French model, it seems the European
Commission has in view to adopt a recommendation that would approve the
gradual type of reaction to illicit downloading.
Gradual response: France proposes its model to the European homologues (only
in French, 24.06.2008)
http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39381916,00.htm
Hadopi project: return to the expectations and forces in presence (only in
French, 23.06.2008)
http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39381902,00.htm
Gradual response : Sacem already has a plan B (only in French, 30.06.2008)
http://www.numerama.com/magazine/10119-Riposte-gradue-la-Sacem-a-dj-un-plan-B.html