French Three Strikes Act seems to be successful

The so-called Three Strikes Act seems to be a successful tool in the battle against piracy. Several studies show that the appeal of piracy has reduced in France, due to the Three Strikes Act. Also the sales of digital entertainment products are growing in France. Furthermore, music industry revenues are starting to stabilize, according to The New York Times.

The French Three Strikes Act makes it possible to disconnect internet users if they engage in illegal file sharing, after they have received three notifications of violating copyrights by illegally downloading pirated content.  

By the end of 2011, Hadopi, the agency that administers the three-strikes system, had sent 822.000 email warnings as First Strike to suspected offenders. These were followed by up to 68.000 second warnings. Of those 68.000 second warnings 165 received a third warning, whereby the French Courts are authorized to disconnect the internet users of the internet, and may impose fines of €1500,- up to or nearly €2000,-.  

From this relatively low number of third-stage offenders, Éric Walter, secretary general of Hadopi, concludes that the French three-strikes system works properly. This statement seems to be supported by recent academic research. A study carried out by the American Wellesly College and Carnegie Mellon University reports that there is a causal link between the iTunes music sales and the Three Strikes Act. In 2010, research by Adermon and Liang led to the conclusion that stricter enforcement of intellectual property law in Sweden caused the amount of illegal downloads to decrease and the sales of authorized digital music to rise.  

The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy intends to strengthen enforcement powers of the Hadopi agency, by giving it more tools to crack down on unauthorized streaming and other forms of piracy. However, now the French presidential election is near, opposition to the Three Strikes policy is increasing. For example, opponents question the causal link between growing digital sales and the enforcement of the Three Strikes Act.

Read more about the French Three Strikes Act on FutureOfCopyright.com:

• Australia one step closer towards Three Strikes ? 
• French Three Strikes : half a million warnings sent as first strike
• French Socialist Party against Three Strikes

Reference: The New York Times, Webwereld

By: Deniece Teterissa