A report published by the French High Authority for the Dissemination of Creative Works and Protection of Rights on the Internet HADOPI is being touted by file sharing opponents the world over as proof that so-called “graduated response” policies are very effective at stopping copyright infringement.
Problem is, it neglects to mention something very important: the profits of the French film and music studios have continued to decline despite the harsh Internet restrictions.
France passed a “three strikes” graduated response program a little over a year and a half ago at the prompting of U.S. businesses, wherein users are severed from the Internet after their third time being caught downloading copyrighted material. It is similar to a U.S. program being voluntarily launched in July by Internet service providers working in conjunction with the movie and music industry lobbies.
The report shows that France’s law has made a dramatic impact, with the sharing of films down 66 percent, and file sharing website traffic dropping off by 17 percent. The key metric, overall sharing that flouts copyright laws, is was also down 43 percent from Dec. 2009 through Dec. 2011.
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via French film, music industries shrink despite harsh anti-piracy law | The Raw Story.