HADOPI Is “Too Expensive To Justify” Said France’s Culture Minister

August 3, 2012 by
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Digital Media, Mobile Phones, P2P technology, Entertainment Industry, Legal P2P News & Issues 

After France’s three-strike system (also known as HADOPI) was praised by President Sarkozy and France’s film company Gaumont, French Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti made a shocking statement. From his claims, HADOPI is not only costing the country too much money, but has also failed to improve the availability of legal content.

HADOPI, as many of you may already know, was proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy with the purpose to fight piracy and discourage file-sharing. After becoming law, the president was very happy with the results, claiming the thanks to HADOPI 95% of those who received the first warning letter stopped from downloading copyrighted materials (according to a report that covered a period of one year – from October 2010 to December 2011).

But France’s new Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti does not agree and promised that she will not support HADOPI. In Nouvel Observateur the new minister said that the legislation is costing the country too much money, especially with the economic crisis going around.

“In financial terms, 12 million euros a year and 60 officers, it’s an expensive way to send a million e-mails,” the Minister said.

“As part of budgetary efforts, I will ask that funding of Hadopi is greatly reduced.”

It is yet unknown how much “reduced” means, but that will be established sometime in September this year.

In the meantime, Numerama’s report, quoting HADOPI’s statistics for June 2012, says that 340 French unique internet accounts are already on their third strike and, according to the law, the accounts are to be closed. Minister Filippetti does not agree with this kind of punishment and said:

“The suspension of Internet access seems a disproportionate sanction against the end goal.”

Furthermore, she’s also disappointed with HADOPI failing to promote and create legal services in order to reduce piracy.

“I do not know what will become of this institution, but one thing is clear: Hadopi has not fulfilled its mission to develop legal offers,” Filippetti said.

A meeting to discuss the future of HADOPI – led by former Canal+ director Pierre Lescure – is to be expected in the following months.

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