French Government Take Up The Fight Against Internet Piracy

27th November 2007

French internet users who illegally download music and films could have their web access shut down by a government body under a recent industry agreement backed by Nicolas Sarkozy, the President.

The proposed government enforcement body would utilise information collected by Internet Service Providers ("ISPs") focusing on their high volume users to detect illegal file sharing. Persistent offenders would be cautioned and, as part of a three strikes and you're out policy, could see their internet accounts terminated if they ignore two cautions.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Paris on Friday 23 November by more than 40 signatories including music content providers, audiovisual content providers, ISPs and public authorities, and is said to contain concrete undertakings. Under the terms of the agreement, ISPs have committed to experimenting with technologies to filter out infringing content. The proposed government body will publish monthly results of its anti-piracy actions so the effectiveness of the system can be monitored. According to an article in the Financial Times, to establish the new enforcement body the government will have to introduce legislation amending copyright, data protection, telecommunications and consumer protection laws, with a vote in parliament on the cards as soon as Spring 2008.

The move has been welcomed by the music and film industries. As part of the agreement, representatives of the French film industry say they will attempt to release DVDs of popular films within six months of their general cinema release as opposed to the current seven and a half month waiting period. Quite whether this will make any difference to online film piracy will have to be examined in due course. The representatives of the recording industry have undertaken to make a special effort in favour of interoperability, particularly with regard to music catalogue produced in France. This is most likely to be in the form of dropping digital rights management ("DRM") protection to make individual downloads of archive French material available (and playable) on all types of players.

John Kennedy, Chairman and CEO of IFPI, the organisation representing the recording industry worldwide, said: "This is the single most important initiative to help win the war on online piracy that we have seen so far. By requiring ISPs to play a role in the fight against piracy, President Sarkozy has set an example to others of how to ensure that the creative industries remain strong in difficult markets so that they can remain major economic and cultural contributors to society."

Other governments, including our own, will no doubt be watching the developments with great interest. The BPI and Era went on record as welcoming the agreement, with BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor stating: "The UK Government has said that if an industry wide agreement cannot be reached, it will take statutory action to require ISPs to recognise their responsibility to warn customers about IP theft and, if necessary, suspend or terminate their accounts. The BPI has been seeking to persuade ISPs for more than a year that they should implement such procedures but progress has been limited. We will continue to pursue voluntary arrangements, but unless these are achieved very soon we believe that the UK Government must act, as the French government has, to ensure that the urgent problem of internet piracy is tackled effectively." With the recommendations of the Gower review that ISPs get their house in order with a voluntary code seemingly prophetic, it will be interesting to see whether the French approach is adopted in the UK.

The proposals have not been welcomed by all however. Two deputies from Sarkozy's own UMP party, Marc le Fur and Alain Suguenot, have joined the dissenters issuing a statement deploring the "undemocratic proposal to confer quasi-judicial powers to a new enforcement agency". In addition, one of France's largest consumer rights organisations, UFC-Que Choisir, joined the debate saying the proposals are "very harsh potentially repressive, anti-economic and the free market and contrary to the prevailing ethos and practices of the digital age". It has also been pointed out that French law already provides for internet piracy to be punishable by a prison sentence of up to three years.