French politicians not completely satisfied with three-strikes legislation

It was notably the support of the ruling party UMP that ensured that the controversial three strikes legislation was adopted in France. This has cost the party the vote of confidence of a lot of young voters. They now have the idea that the UMP hates the digital era.

To stem the tide and to emphasise that the party does indeed embrace the digital future, the UMP has established a working group to study the online environment. This working party recently published a report, with the resounding title “Vive internet” in which the viewpoints of the party on different digital issues is clarified.

The report established that the internet community is sceptical about the government. "In order to avoid this negative logic, the responsible politician should express confidence in digital progress and engagement in the development of new technologies."

On the subject of copyright in the digital era, the report states that France has perchance not chosen “not the most effective approach" by focusing "on the 'morality' of users' practices". “Illegal downloading shouldn't become marginalized by restrictive legislation, but by making technological progress and the evolution of [Internet] use", the report says.

The writers probably refer to the mass migration to illegal streaming services, while the emphasis of the Hadopi law lies on P2P services. Furthermore, it is probably a lot less costly to target suppliers of illegal wares than it is to keep millions of French on the straight and narrow download path.

Still, the authors say, it is important as a government to make clear that the illicit sharing of copyrighted works is simply not allowed.