(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...