First Piracy Cases To Hit Court

The French “three strikes” anti-piracy campaign has so far resulted in 165 suspected illegal file-sharers being taken to court.

In the two years since the campaign began, Hadopi – the agency that oversees the exercise – has sent out 822,000 first warnings via email.

Just less than 70,000 needed a second warning, and those who didn’t respond to it now face fines of about €1,500 and being disconnected from the Internet for a month.

“I think more and more French people understand that artists should get paid for their work,” said Pascal Nègre, president of Universal Music France. “I think everybody has a friend who has received an email. This creates a buzz. There is an educational effect.”

However, the scheme has its critics and they’re telling French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who championed the measure, that it infringes on civil liberties.

Éric Walter, Hadopi’s secretary general, said the relatively low number of third-stage offenders – 165 out of 822,000 – shows that the system is working.

“Our work is to explain to people why piracy is a bad thing and why they should stop,” he said. “When the people understand that, they do stop.”