Thread: French Anti-Piracy Law Doomed to Fail

Despite plenty of protests, the French Parliament passed a controversial new law last week that will see alleged copyright infringers disconnected from the Internet. Now, a new survey reveals that 60% of French Internet users are against the so-called HADOPI law. 69% say they believe it will fail.

The new legislation passed in France last week requiring ISPs to cut off the Internet access of alleged copyright infringers has never been popular with anyone outside of the government and entertainment industries.

The new ‘HADOPI’ (Creation and Internet) law introduces unlimited options for copyright holders to go after individuals and sites that are alleged to have infringed copyright, without having to actually prove that the accused are categorically guilty. Now, a new survey by French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) for Lejdd shows just how (un)popular this so-called ‘graduated response’ is with the public.

From a survey of 1004 individuals representative of the French Internet user, 60% of respondents said they were not in favor of the law (42% were strongly against), with a third saying they support it “somewhat”. Interestingly, there was no difference between the different age groups in the expected effectiveness of the new anti-piracy legislation. Overall, the majority responded quite negatively. Just 24% of respondents said that they felt the ‘graduated response’ would be “very” or “somewhat” effective, with a huge 69% believing it will fail.

As in most countries, illegal file-sharing is widespread in France. One in four of the respondents admitted that they downloaded copyrighted music or movies regularly. There is a clear generation gap here, as 40% of those younger than 30 years categorized themselves as active downloaders opposed to 6% in the 65 years and older group.

Document available in french language: here

Its weird to see a country that big enforce a law such as this. We will all see if it works. ISP's in France will be their b#$^%. lol. You know the gov. will be breathing down their neck all the time.

No one can Stop the Piracy Thats the true

All hail the Pirates! :P

Sh!t like this will eventually happen in all European countries and not only. It's just a matter of time. Internet will become like the f°°ckin cable television, you'll only get what they want you to get. I know it sounds sooo like a science fiction cliche but unfortunately it will happen.

I myself am one of the p2p users that loves being a part of "pirate" communities not only for the commodity that quality trackers bring to us, but also for the pure joy that hurting entertainment industries brings to me.

Let's hope that the scene and not only don't get intimidated by similar news. I'll leech and seed as long as I'll have an internet connection. If they cut it, god be my witness, I'll use 3G mobile technology if I have to...even at 1kB/s. Now how's that for a fanatic pirate? :))

Piracy will never end regardless of what they do... even if they find a way to block ports and only allow legit content to be able to be accessed there will always be a way to circumvent it... after all it is the government.

I wonder what this will mean to OVH...

Originally Posted by Hakeem

I wonder what this will mean to OVH...

Nothing.
I'm french and in all the country, nobody thinks the law can stop something.
OVH could lose a lot of money, so they will not very apply this law IF it is voted (but seems no at the moment :P).