A French agency that reports to the French Ministry of Culture dubbed “Hadopi” has been scouring the internet for months, harvesting the IP addresses of French citizens who have downloaded copyrighted materials . By law, the ISP must hand over the email address of the customer hadopi has determined is guilty of downloading music or movies.
The anti-piracy law was passed after years of heavy lobbying by the SCPP, a French organization that appears to be similar to the RIAA and MPAA in the United States. The SCPP claims that listening to music that was freely downloaded off the internet costs France’s music industry $978 million per year.
But it is much more complicated to calculate the true cost of free music to the French music industry. It costs the music industry exactly $0 to put the music on the internet. Each user that downloads the music costs the industry exactly $0. Each time a French citizen listens to the music they downloaded for free, it costs the French music industry exactly $0. So, $0 times the number of songs downloaded and listened to equals $0. Huh, maybe that was not so complicated.
Look Honey! The government is shutting off our internet for a year because we did not know how to secure our internet connection! Thanks Hadopi!
Of course the SCPP does not mean that piracy actually costs the music industry any money. That is just clever way to say that the music industry has failed to capitalize on an opportunity, and blame those who have failed to increase their wealth. It is actually the consumer’s fault for not buying their product when it is available for free. What they are saying is that the music industry could make $978 million more per year if there were tough laws in place to prevent free distribution of music.
And pass tough laws is exactly what France did. The law specifies that no matter who actually downloaded music or movies, the owner of the connection is responsible. Three strikes and you can be barred from accessing the internet for a year. And what of those who are not tech savvy enough to secure their internet connections? Well thankfully, hadopi is writing instructions to help people protect themselves from those who would use their internet connection. Very kind of them. Maybe hadopi should have written instructions for the music industry detailing how the they can increase profits without trampling the civil rights of millions of French citizens.
