The French Hadopi graduated response law was passed in October 2009. A study by Professor Bret Danaher published earlier this year titled The Effect of Graduated Response Anti-Piracy Laws on Music Sales: Evidence from an Event Study in France found that it is effective in helping to reduce online copyright infringement and spur legitimate sales of music in France. He talked about the study earlier this year while in Toronto at the Canadian Music Week, Global Forum.
Earlier today, Anne-Sylvie Vassenaix-Paxton a lawyer with Heenan Blakie in Paris gave a speech at an ALAI meeting in Toronto. She described the history, operation, and effectiveness of the Hadopi graduated response law.
Her summary of the effect of the Hadopi law is described as follows:
- Studies show a clear downward trend in illegal peer-to-peer downloads
- Drop of approximately 43% in the illegal sharing of works on peer-to-peer networks in France over the year 2011(study by Peer Media Technologies)
- No indication that there has been a massive transfer to streaming technologies
- Too early to assess the impact of MegaUpload shutdown in January 2012
- At the same time, a wide range of legal content offers has been made available
- Dissuasive effect of the progressive response process:
- 95% of those having received a first-time notice do not need to be sent a second notice for illegal behaviour on peer-to-peer network
- 71% of peer-to-peer users surveyed indicate that they would stop downloading ilegal content if they received a warning from the HADOPI
Her slides are shown below.