New French Government Not Impressed By Hadopi; Wants To Cut Its Funding

from the reality-catches-up dept

Tue, Aug 7th 2012 9:05am — Mike Masnick

Hadopi, the French 3-strikes program that was "the model" for what the recording industry to push around the world -- trying to get countries to force ISPs to kick people offline after three accusations (not convictions) of unauthorized file sharing -- was one of Nicolas' Sarkozy's key programs. During the recent elections, his competitors certainly hinted that they were less impressed by Hadopi, and now that the Francois Hollande administration is in control, it seems that drastically cutting back Hadopi is in the cards. The new culture minister, Aurelie Filippetti, has made it clear that she is not impressed by Hadopi, arguing that it's a huge waste of money for the government, and is on the chopping block as far as funding goes. Furthermore, she thinks the basis of the program, kicking people offline, goes way too far.

“In financial terms, 12 million euros a year and 60 officers, it’s an expensive way to send a million e-mails.... As part of budgetary efforts, I will ask that funding of Hadopi is greatly reduced.”

Furthermore, she noted that kicking people offline seems "a disproportionate sanction," with little evidence that it supports "the end goal." What's that goal? To increase legal access. As we've noted in the past, while Hadopi tried to declare success, the data shows no increase in sales, which certainly suggests a failure.

What happens next will be worth watching. Some suspect that the government won't actually kill off Hadopi, because it's dependent on support from the local entertainment industry. But that may be the least of its concerns. If France actually scales back or scraps Hadopi, expect the legacy US entertainment industry to go absolutely crazy, followed by "diplomatic pressure" from the US, and ridiculous claims that France "doesn't respect" culture and the like. We've seen it before in places like Spain, Sweden, Canada and Israel when those countries put in place copyright regimes that the legacy players didn't like, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the same thing happen in France.

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Filed Under: aurelie filippetti, france, funding, hadopi, three strikes

30 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 9:07am

Cue the shills not understanding the problems with enforcing copyright and claiming google is now in control of france behind the scenes.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 9:14am

Chopping block would be "remove funding". Reducing funding doesn't mean the same thing.

Basic stuff there Mike.
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Baldaur Regis (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 9:20am

...expect the legacy US entertainment industry to go absolutely crazy, followed by "diplomatic pressure" from the US, and ridiculous claims that France "doesn't respect" culture and the like.
And yet I beleive France is cultured enough to react to any pressure with the immortal words "Aller vous faire foutre!" Or however the French express the phrase "go fuck yourselves".
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Richard (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 9:42am

Re:
,i>Chopping block would be "remove funding". Reducing funding doesn't mean the same thing.

No, chopping block implies a cut - which is what is likely to happen.

It is you that is lacking reading comprehension.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 9:46am

Re:
i've always thought that expression was in french?
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gorehound (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 9:52am

Re:
And what did the French do back in the time of "Freedom Fries" .

The French will roll over to the Big MAFIAA Industries.
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Lowestofthekeys (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:03am

It seems like a common pattern that the entertainment industry expects other companies to front the costs for all these operations to stop pirating.

Maybe they should start investing some of their own.
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Lowestofthekeys (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:05am

Re:
Correction, companies and the government.

Let's not forget the free $32 million content ID system.
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Rikuo (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:07am

France? Respect American culture? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Seriously, my best friend is French and tells me with complete seriousness that he and the rest of his people despise American culture a.k.a Hollywood. After watching a few French movies, I gotta say, I agree with him. So much better in absolutely every way.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:11am

Re:
Amusing how the MAFIAA always complain about people using their hard work without paying while at the same time wanting to force others to spend time and effort on providing them a service they find valuable.

Fucking hypocrits.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:12am

Re: Re:
*spend time and effort in providing a service they find valueable at cost to the ones providing them the service
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:14am

i hope that Hadopi, along with every other 'law' of this type in every other country that has been 'influenced' so much by the US and been lied to so much by the entertainment industries is scrapped as soon as possible! it would make a nice change to have something happen that benefits the people and stops the further erosion of privacy and freedom, while benefiting a corporation instead. i bet the complaining about this by the entertainment industries will soon start. however, now that France does not have a 1st lady who is a member of those industries, it may, hopefully, fall on deaf ears!
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PRMan, 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:16am

Re:
"After watching a few French movies, I gotta say, I agree with him. They certainly despise American Culture/Hollywood."

FTFY
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Baldaur Regis (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:20am

Re: Re:
Ah yes, "freedom fries", when certain US pols threw a hissy fit over French opposition to the 2003 Iraqi invasion. The French response? "We are at a very serious moment dealing with very serious issues and we are not focusing on the name you give to potatoes," said Nathalie Loisau, an embassy spokeswoman.

Hadopi seemed to be a pet project of Sarkozy. New politicians, new priorities.
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DannyB (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:52am

May I propose a reasonable solution
I would propose the following reasonable solution.

Reduce Hadopi funding so it has zero staff. (eg, a shell)

Make it the only official piracy enforcement mechanism in the country.

That solves two problems with one stone.
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fairusefriendly (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 10:59am

They should put a surtax on registration of copyrights and only allow french registered copyright to utilize the service. If the copyright holders have to pay for the service then at least there will be accountability for it.
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You're a Gazelle! (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 11:02am

Re:
Oh yeah? 2 words: Jerry Lewis.
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SujaOfJauhnral (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 11:34am

Re:
Yuck, who wouldn't despise Hollywood?

I agree on the French movies, City of the Lost Children and others made by the same group are among my favorites, they just have this style to them you almost never see in US movies.
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artp (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 11:45am

Re: ridiculous claims that France "doesn't respect" culture and the like.
Those Frenchmen never have respected culture. Everything they have ever done has made a mockery of culture.

Look at Toulouse la Trec. He was a midget!

Then there was van Gogh who painted his hallucinations and became famous. We put people like that in asylums fer cryin' out loud!

Matisse and a bunch of others couldn't paint, so they just put dots on the canvas, or smeared some oils on. I can't tell it from the grade school paintings!

Paul Gaugin doesn't count. He left the country before he got on a roll.

And they all painted nekked people. Couldn't afford clothes, I guess. They starved them all in garrets, whatever those are.

Even back in the Stone Age, somebody daubed up a bunch of unlikely looking critters in a cave at Lausanne that just don't measure up to Real Cave Paintings!

Those Frenchman ain't got no class!

[Satire for the humor impaired.]
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 11:48am

I think it is interesting. I thought that the french government would be too scared of loosing the political support they get from the gatekeepers. It seems like the ACTA-farce in EU with demonstrations and the political climate in the parliament has convinced the socialists in France that the conservatives in France are extreme on this issue compared to any other european country. Cutting funding will weaken the enforcement for obvious reasons and with less enforcement comes less efficiency and with less efficiency it is so much easier to argue for killing the abomination.
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John Fenderson (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 1:09pm

Re:
After watching a few French movies, I gotta say, I agree with him.

Me too. French films tend toward being truly excellent and demonstrate that even mainstream (as in non-arthouse) film can be art. Hollywood films are, with some exceptions, garbage -- and even the best of Hollywood fails to rise to the same heights as the best of the French.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 3:00pm

France is in a serious financial crisis, that's why Sarkozy lost the election.

The government's budget is a giant mess and they are going to try and slash as many programs as they possibly can.
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 7 Aug 2012 @ 3:34pm

Re:
Yeah, because when you chop wood in a chopping wood, you actually "remove wood", you don't "reduce it".

This is just Karate Mike trying to sell us his Karate-Apologist chopping blocks.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 8:25pm

Re:
In other words the most superfluous, inefficient and pointless programs have to go.

Says it all about HADOPI, really. The usual trolls are furious.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2012 @ 11:20pm

Re:
And how effective do you think a HADOPI with reduced funding would be? Take another two years to send less than 340 third-strike notices? HADOPI will dwindle down to sheer insignificance such that even reduced funding will be phased out. HADOPI is officially being placed in its dying throes - you mad?
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2012 @ 3:25am

Reading the linked article, there's a suggestion that the new party won't actually declare HADOPI dead but pretty much won't support or continue effective implementation.

Anyone want to bet that months down the road, Paywall Bob and the Techdirt Trolls will be singing a remix of an old number? That HADOPI, like DMCA, burdens the rightsholders too much and Big Search funded and bought the law at their expense?
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TFP, 8 Aug 2012 @ 4:34am

You may not have noticed, but hatred of all America's policies (extradition, Hollywood, illegal wars, bankers) is now a tidal wave of feeling sweeping across the globe. The world thought Obama was going to change things, bring the US back from the brink, redistribute the wealth and then get assassinated, but the puppet masters are winning...

I'm pretty sure your founding fathers would be turning in their graves for how you've allowed the destruction of their 'Declaration of Independence'.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2012 @ 8:01am

Re:
That's dumb.

American culture is extremely popular in France and has been since the second World War.
There IS a French elitism that despises Hollywood, Hip Hop and McDonald's. That's a very tiny snotty minority. And the exact same minority in the U.S. would despise Hollywood and McDonald's just as much. And probably praise something French.

American movies, music, literature, fashion and food sell very well and are generally very popular here in France.
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John Fenderson (profile), 8 Aug 2012 @ 8:50am

Re: Re:
So you're saying that because something is popular then it must be good?
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john, 23 Aug 2012 @ 1:52am

Re: Re: Re:
Wow John Fenderson, you sound like a moron. Let me try to boil things down for you..

TFP says that the world despises the US and US culture. Anonymous Coward responds that in France, that's not really true, that they like a lot of US culture.

Then you chime in with "so your'e saying that if it's popular it must be good?" No, clearly Anonymous Coward DID NOT say or imply that. He only refuted the claim that US culture is disliked. Never tried to make an argument that it was good. Don't try to change the argument to suit your agenda.

Sorry, that was giving you too much credit as if you knew what you were doing. I should say " don't just into a debate unless you're intelligent enough to understand what's already been said."

FAIL.
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