The 12 million euros allocated to the High Authority may not have been conceived with the importance of the mission of the legal offer in mind, according to Muriel Marland-Militello. She aims to make the legal offer a priority to encourage internet users to download legally. Giving “a strong signal” to internet users and the music and film industries is part of her priorities. She has thus submitted an amendment to increase the budget of the High Authority. Her goal? To increase the legal offer.
Nice Premium: Could you remind us what the Creation and Internet law, more commonly known as Hadopi, is and specify the two components it consists of (repression and improvement of the legal offer)?
Muriel Marland-Militello: It is a law with two main goals: to allow as many people as possible to access culture and to protect copyrights, intellectual and artistic property. It is a legal protection in France. Also, by protecting them, it allows for the diversity of artistic creation. If you do not protect copyrights, there will be no more authors. They need to make a living from their creations. And if there are no more authors, there will be nothing left to download on the Internet. At the same time, this law aims to promote creation and artistic diversity on the Internet to the greatest benefit of internet users.
Why was it deemed necessary to make a law? Three-quarters of people, due to lack of knowledge, were downloading artists’ works illegally without paying for them. It led to a real problem of artistic creation and impoverishment of what we could download. The Hadopi law has another goal: by looking into these drifts, we realized that the internet users had excuses. Firstly, they did not always know they were downloading illegally. So, we wanted to clarify the situation. Secondly, they truly had an excuse in that they did not have interesting legal offers. If when you are on the Internet, you can only download a movie two years later or even a year later, you are tempted to download it earlier.
One of the goals of the Hadopi law is to reduce the media chronology. Most films have significantly less audience after three weeks or a month. It is entirely reasonable that these films can be legally downloaded from the Internet for a small fee. This continues to provide funding for the film. It allows internet users to watch the film when they could not do so because they live in places without cinemas. It is important that they can watch the film so they do not have to wait eight months. We wanted to increase the legal offer. We have tackled the problem head-on in all its areas. There are people who upload works to sites that they did not create. It costs them nothing but earns them money. It is this category of people we really want to sanction. On the other hand, there is the vast majority of internet users who did not realize that they were acting illegally and that it had serious repercussions because they had always downloaded. The internet world has evolved much faster than the law. They had a clear conscience. With the HADOPI law, we wanted to provide education. It is interesting to see that this law has received the support of 9.9 tenths of artists, industries, and small and medium-sized cultural enterprises.
NP: Who finances the High Authority?
MM-M: It is mainly the State. But the rights holders contribute to collecting IP addresses. They fund the work of sworn agents.
NP: Currently, what is the budget of Hadopi?
MM-M: We have planned a financing budget of 12 million euros. It funds the implementation of the graduated response and all the information components. In the graduated response, the relationships between the High Authority and internet users occur in three phases. When a rights holder notes that their work has been pirated, they immediately report it to Hadopi. The High Authority will then request the Internet service provider to retrieve the IP addresses (a unique identification number assigned to each device connected to a computer network). When the person is identified, they are informed that they are in complete illegality, reminded of the law, and informed of the existence of the legal offer. If during six months, the person continues to use works illegally on the Internet, Hadopi sends them a letter with acknowledgment of receipt to ensure they have received it. If they reoffend within six months, meaning that over a year, they make at least three illegal downloads, Hadopi proceeds to sanction measures. These sanction measures are not automatic. Hadopi will talk to the internet user. If the internet user guarantees, with written proof, that they will not reoffend, it is not obliged to impose a sanction.
In the second version of the law, the sanction can go as far as the closure of Internet access and a fine. But this sanction cannot be pronounced directly by Hadopi. It will be made by a judge within a simplified procedure. The judge will, in summary proceedings, decide whether to cut Internet access and impose a fine.
NP: What do you think of the attitude adopted by the operator Free on this subject (it now sends the letters)?
MM-M: Obviously, it now sends the letters.
NP: Initially, Free disagreed…
MM-M: Free has come into line. Ultimately, the validity of this law convinces them all. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are an essential link in the fight against piracy. In the framework of the graduated response, it is they who will provide us with the addresses, allowing us to contact the individual who will also have the means to defend themselves. If someone used their site, they will be able to defend themselves. ISPs are critical for the fight.
NP: Will this increase have repercussions on internet users/taxpayers?
MM-M: It will absolutely not weigh on the finances of individuals; quite the opposite. With the increase in the legal offer, individuals will be able to watch a film much cheaper than in theaters. If they live in a small village, they will be very pleased. On the contrary, it greatly promotes cultural democratization by allowing people who are in cities far from cinemas to access culture thanks to this affordable legal offer.
