Online Piracy Becomes a ‘National Sport’ in France
Written by enigmax on November 07, 2008Edging ever closer to becoming law, France’s “three-strikes” proposals have received support in the French Senate which voted overwhelmingly in favor for these draconian measures to deal with piracy. Now, a new report suggests that online piracy has become something of a ‘national sport’ in France.
The online file-sharing debate is really heating up in France. Contrary to advice from the European Court of Justice, France is pressing ahead with its plan for a controversial “3 strikes” or “graduated response” framework to deal with alleged file-sharers. Now, supported by a Le Figaro headline, “Piracy Has Become a National Sport in France”, a new study from market research company TNS Sofres is set to add fuel to the fire.
According to the poll of 2,011 people over 15 years old, the French use a diverse range of digital media to store or play pirated content. Of those questioned, 34% said their media players contained pirated files, with 20% admitting they go as far as using external hard drives to store illicit content. The USB storage key was used by 8% of respondents to shift illegal content, with 7% admitting to using mutimedia-capable cellphones.
Although the piracy ‘problem’ seems to be massive in France, it is certainly not limited to that one country. Just over the English Channel from France lies the UK, where an estimated 6 million people engage in online piracy – roughly 10% of the population. Across the pond, in the United States, a 2007 study found that 18 percent of the total US online population downloaded at least 1 movie from the Internet, illegally.
The French survey shows that the ‘problem’ is not limited to the younger generation, as is often assumed – it affects the entire population. The report further suggests that the actual numbers might be much greater than reported, but with news of draconian measures to deal with online piracy making headlines regularly, just how many people are prepared to be honest about their piracy habits?
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76 Responses
we’re all a bunch a no good dirty pirates :P
the 3-strike law won’t work, isps won’t follow it, the senate is just a bunch of old corrupted farts here only to prevent any big change (the senate is always on the right while the national assembly swings), and i never had any trouble downloading whatever i want without any complaint from anybody
It’ll be interesting to see what the reaction will be from the populace if the 3 strikes policy becomes law? Vive la revolution? ;-)
Considering the crap way to detect an actual infringement ,even accepting this law, its going to disconnect corporate networks who in return will rain down lawsuits when the production stops and millions of euro go bye bye.
what can i say im a bad man :p
I thought the EU said the 3 strikes and your gone idea is wrong, pointless, and against human rights!
Come on people of Frogland, DON’T PUT UP WITH IT!! PIRATE TILL YOUR EYES BLEED!!!
As a neighboor of france i’ll do my part and pirate a movie today!!
I’m wondering if the editors and/or users of Torrent Freak could come up with some ideas that the copyright holders of the pirated materials could use avoid implementing these “draconian measures to deal with piracy” and protect their property?
cool:) fellow countrymate. my eyes bleed already^^
Is it really surprising to see such “news” in the French media just before the vote of the three-strikes law? Just basic lobbying, and there will certainly be other similar “information” from the lobbies soon.
The 3-strike law will be discussed in the French National Assembly (equivalent of the US Congress) in january of 2009 and it will definitely be a must to follow.
About the 3-strike law, before the French Senate voted the law, the government (a right one and the puppet of Sarkozy) censured a study from an independant authority, CNIL (National Commission of Informatic and Liberties), which opposed the law and its reasons.
But just after the Senate voted the law, a French newspaper, la Tribune, published the study… This is how it works in our democracy : first, the government make the senators vote a law, and only then, if we are lucky, the “bad” studies are published in a newspaper.
However, the European Parliament and the European Commission seem to be useful allies against the 3-strike law cause the European Parliament voted an interesting amendment to the Telecom Package law. This amendment (n°138 of the Telecom Package) says that :
” applying the principle that no restriction may be imposed on the rights and freedoms of end-users, notably in accordance with Article 11 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on freedom of expression and information, without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities, except where dictated by force majeure or by the requirements of preserving network integrity and security, and subject to national provisions of criminal law imposed for reasons of public policy, public security or public morality.”
This is the “without a prior ruling by the judicial authorities” that is important here. Indeed in the French 3-strike law, an authority, called Hadopi, will have the power the cut an internet connexion without a judicial ruling when the majors will ask Hadopi to do so.
That’s why the French President, Sarkozy, which is actually the European President too, asked the President of the European Commission, Mr Barroso, to delete the amendment n°138. However, today, Mr Barroso annonced that he won’t delete it cause it was adopted by 88% of the European Parliament.
In conclusion, the French National Assembly may vote for the 3-strike law in january of 2009 but the European Parliament could overturn this vote in march of 2009 by voting for the Telecom Package with the amendment n°138.
This is the whole story about the French 3-strike law and the opposition to it of the European Parliament.
See you guys ;-)
The best (and only) way to solve this “problem” is to just legalize noncommercial copying. All the illegal filesharing would stop from one moment to the next.
File Sharing is should not be a crime. Most uninformed people just don’t know its not legal. We should all be charged some stupid flat rate of maybe 6 bucks to download all the music we want and let that be the end of it. If Rhapsody lets you do it for 14 a month Im sure an isp can do it for about 6 bucks.
Visit P2P Tech Time
http://www.p2ptechtime.com
the ‘crime’ just like pot-smoking, is victimless.
you can fool some people sometime, but you cant fool all the people all the time
The next generation of P2P needs to be anonymous (hide peers) and encrypt transmission.
Any French people using this should just cough up the few extra euros and get their files from Usenet – it’s faster and no chance of getting caught currently.
They can´t kill piracy.
What will they forbid next? Farting?
Jerking off?
“The new 3-strokes-law: after the third time the governement will cut your balls off.”
lmao
Considering the penalties for copyright infringement, it’s a wonder that so many people admitted to doing it. What do you suppose the actual figures are?
Everyone should be ware that “Le Figaro” is a very pro-Sarkozy newspaper.
No wonder, it is publishing a very alarming study. The 3-strikes law will be discussed in January 2009.
This kind of article is part of the general lobbying.
The Pirate Bay has already been there for a long time. If it would have a detrimental effect on everything, it would have already played out. To say that piracy will bring anything down is misguided, since it has been there for a long time.
In any case, I do believe that the 18+% of people can have significant political power, if only they could mobilize. 18% is a lot of people, and surely they can start organizing meetings etc.?
Roze
http://www.10ch.org/
But The Pirate Bay is a slow ass piece of crap where the majority of people hit & run and there are no seedboxes.
Hell, if only people knew the speed of decent private sites… hell, make that ANY private site. They think BT is great using that piece of Sh*t: they’re gonna be over the goddamn moon when they hit private trackers.
@12
Indeed, that is what needs to happen. In what manner? It is as #3 has said: “vive la revolution.” There needs to be a revolution.
Roze
“File Sharing is should not be a crime.”
Why not? It’s willfully taking a product that doesn’t belong to you which cost it’s creators immense amounts of time, talent, and money to produce.
Why do you feel so entitled to parasitically feed off the hard work of creators?
It’s funny that the only other people with such anarchistic entitlement personalities…are thieves. Hmmm.
only gypsies in france thats why its piracy
piracy is for poor people who have no money
i buy my stuff like a real citizen of my country
pirates are not needed, they are only a burden to their country
they should be put in prison for the rest of their lives for their crimes they’ve commited on the internet
wait what happens if everyone pirates a movie and gets caught 3 times there will be no more money for the companies to collect monthly
@22
Because going after file sharers is frivolous and a waste of the American justice systems time. In most cases people ‘illegally’ download media to try it out first, because most Americans such as myself are materialists. It must be fun to live in such a black and white world.
@22 said: “Why do you feel so entitled to parasitically feed off the hard work of creators?”
Because I prefer to get content for free rather than pay for it and because some content I don’t like anyhow so if I download it I haven’t lost any money. For the forseeable futire there will be enough money for content to be produced so I could care less about the artist. Copyright infringement has been going on in the applications area for much longer than films and music and there is still an extremely vibrant industry on all levels.
Also: “It’s funny that the only other people with such anarchistic entitlement personalities…are thieves. Hmmm.”
Unlike most people here I freely admit I’m a thief – if only in principle, seeing as legally I’m not committing larceny or theft I’m breaking copyright law – but point taken and there’s your answer.
@25 said: “In most cases people ‘illegally’ download media to try it out first, because most Americans such as myself are materialists.”
Bullshit – most people download media to avoid buying it. Perhaps you do not but the vast majority of people who pirate do not purchase – why would they, they already own a copy. You’re not seriously trying to say that most people go out and buy the stuff they download and like are you?
Just one thing :
If you want to see an ENTIRE SHOW like LOST or HEROES you must wait one entire year after the US diffusion or pay 3$ an ep.
Most of episodes are censured.
Most of shows are not in the right order.
The diffusion time was horrible (like 11:30pm)…
For the music one CD was almost 20euros so 25/30 Dollars…
So yes many of young people prefer download illegaly…
…and dont get me started on how much better TV shows are when you can watch when you like and with ZERO ads.
My mother, she is 80! downloads a lot from internet/bittorrent because she don’t have a VCR.
So instead of taping, she is downloading. So now she is doing wrong?
I can’t think of that my mother of 80! go to jail for copyright infringement.
@22
Filesharing cannot be a crime, because it’s done without commercial interest, with the consent of everyone involved, and it doesn’t harm anyone. Laws that forbid things like this are just wrong and ridiculous.
Of course the content industry argues that it actually causes damage, but even if fewer people “buy” the content because they were able to get it for free, it’s the decision of the customers whether or not to buy something for whatever reason. A law that assumes a direct relationship would shortcut the free will of the people.
Filesharing causes no _direct_ damage, and just outlawing it because it may make people not buy something is ridiculous, like outlawing fuel-efficient cars just because they make people buy less gas.
@26 ya sure parasitically gouge your customers into piracy than throw them in jail or fine and sue them to destruction.
Ya copyright was intended as a measure to ensure the artist NOT the MPAA, NOT the RIAA NOT the big would profit and gouge. It also was to have a length that could benefit society.
How can anything past 10 year benefit society, if you ain’t made your buck in ten years YOU AINT MAKIN IT LATER EITHER.
nickel and dimming people takes money form them spending on other things that are useful and fun in the economy, isn’t that what fixing the global mess should be about.
Also with reduction in copyright times and reduction in pricing only the top artists WILL make it thus gearing up quality instead of the CRUD WE HAVE of a situation now.
I think honestly i have downloaded 4 movies this year and 2 a them sucked.
AND also how does telling me at a theatre that 17$ for a pop and popcorn with a dollar off is a SAVINGS? YA tickets are 10$ but they nail you for everything after that.
I am at point to carry an egg or two where ever i go now, lest i see an actor or musician, GET READY TO GET EGGED!.
OH don’t want to get egged better get a t-shirt that says i support p2p on your back n front.
Sorry @22 not @26
the above
Many senators have only seen a side of the problem : how the artists could live of their creation, and particularly the little ones who don’t earn millions and don’t work for a major.
An idea proposed by some associations is the “global license” (i don’t know the same word in english). The fact you pay montly for a “package” to download want you want. The problem is to redistribute correctly money between creators, it’s almost impossible.
Laissez les vieilles manières que la chute a laissé les vieux hommes mourir sens d’A de merveille sera soutenue à nouveau
…or something like that
“Why not? It’s willfully taking a product that doesn’t belong to you which cost it’s creators immense amounts of time, talent, and money to produce.”
“Doesn’t belong” to me? Sure, I don’t own the movie I just downloaded… But no one else does because a movie can’t be owned. On the other hand, the data on my hard drive is mine.
“Why do you feel so entitled to parasitically feed off the hard work of creators?”
I am entitled to receive culture if someone else that has it wants to share it with me.
“Obama: I’m wondering if the editors and/or users of Torrent Freak could come up with some ideas that the copyright holders of the pirated materials could use avoid implementing these “draconian measures to deal with piracy” and protect their property?”
Yeah, I’ve got an idea.
How about the copyright holders stop charging extortionate prices, give the astists their fair share, and pull their heads of their asses when comes to distribution?
For example… If the copyright holders even bother to release a TV show/movie/CD/game in another region, the wait for the localized version(and usually poorly localized, at that) can be up to several months. So the copyright holders are surprised when people decide to just torrent it instead?
These assholes don’t realize the Internet is a borderless global network. Dividing the world up into artificial “regions” doesn’t work anymore(and it never worked too well to begin with). Neither does demanding impossibly overcharged prices.
The reason filesharing is such a phenomenon is because people are tired of being ripped off(as well as supporting an industry that mercilessly rips of the artists), and given an alternative to being used and abused by the copyright holders, they’re going to take it.
“Anonymous: Why not? It’s willfully taking a product that doesn’t belong to you which cost it’s creators immense amounts of time, talent, and money to produce.”
Taking?
As much as I’m all for personal freedom, I wish somebody would draft a law to ban particularly stupid children like you from using the Internet.
Before a person is even allowed to sign up for an ISP, they should be asked if they know the difference between the concept of ‘duplicating something’ and the concept of ‘taking something’. That way, you would have never made the cut, and the rest of us could live blissfully free from being annoyed by your pea sized brain.
But alas, we don’t live in such a perfect world. So let me provide you with a little free education.
Imagine you have an orange.
If I walk up to you, grab the orange right out of your hands, and then walk off, then I have taken it from you. This is called stealing.
On the otherhand… If I walk up to you, make a perfect duplicate of your orange, and then walk away with the magic copy, then I have NOT taken your orange away from you. It’s still right there in your hands. Therefore, you cannot possibly accuse me of theft. Because… What exactly did I take from you? Certainly not your orange. This is how filesharing works.
You would do well to learn.
And this is why The Pirate Bay really goddam SUX A BIG TURD!!
even in communist countries (not china, they’re not communist) the people had free access to art, and that’s the way it should be. if i believe an artist is deserving of my support i will buy a t-shirt or a cd as a badge of honor and to ensure he/she/they will be able to make more of their art that i so enjoy. this is how it is for people that have figured it out already and it keeps the real artists alive while reducing the amount of hacks out there. cd sales are down 25% from last year but that’s nothing compared to the plummeting numbers of the major label’s fake plastic garbage over the years. can anyone sell 1 million copies in a day anymore like n*sync and other manufactured garbage could in the 90’s? the answer is no. they can’t even do that much in a week and none can make it to diamond status (10 million records) anymore. people don’t watch MTV, don’t listen to radio because they are no longer the source of good music, so they turned to the internet,where they can freely browse to find something they love and are willing to give something to, whether it be money or attention or spreading the word along. eventually artists will be paid for their work but it won’t be as expensive as the online music stores of today. to insist buying cds helps artists is false unless they are on a good indie label and even then it’s not that much. the real artists always survive and will always survive because their art is the kind of stuff that drives people to support them.
China is communist you frikkin dumb sh*t moron. The fact that they allow free enterprise under certain strict limitations in China doesn’t change that.
You sir are a stupid, clueless, gai butt-f*cking noob who obviously dresses in womens underwear.
Why P2P? Because it creates a culture where the people are in control. Without copyright, people are free to join in and create their own things to share with others. With copyright, culture is in the domain of the industry only. P2P is not the thing that is eviscerating art. Copyright is.
Roze
When the CD was introduced in October 1982 it cost around €16. Now, 26 years later, when the product has matured, the initial investments has paid off many, many times and volumes have sky-rocketed, the cost has sunk to a whopping… wait for it… €16.
Isn’t that amazing? What other product can show the same total lack of price reduction after 26 years? Hard disks? RAM? Microprocessors? Yeah, right…
And those greedy bastards deserve special, draconian laws to protect their outdated distribution methods? I think NOT!
@41
You forget inflation..
Also,
@22 and everyone else
Seeing a work without pay is not taking anything or being parasitic. This would have to assume that when someone sees a piece of culture, that it is ultimately useless for anything except monetarily benefiting the rights holder. That is idiotic. Culture has many benefits. It can inspire people to do various things. It can change people’s ideas on various things. Finally, and most importantly of all, it can inspire people to create their own. This final bit is important because culture is an exchange – when one sees any piece of culture, one is not “leeching” anything. Rather, one is contributing to the culture by forming one’s own thoughts on it, and by then sharing it by creating one’s own work in response.
Roze
In other words, culture is a community to which one belongs. Culture is definitely not about “paying the rights holder.” Rather, it is about becoming a part of a cultural community, socializing on this subject, and creating their own works in response as contribution. Culture is not just based on the relationship between creator/rights holder and audience, but rather than audience amongst themselves as a community, creating their own works in turn as a response.
Roze
@40 : Roze said “Without copyright, people are free to join in and create their own things to share with others. With copyright, culture is in the domain of the industry only.”
Dude, you keep spouting this line which is patently untrue. People are free to create and distribute anything they wish – WITH OR WITHOUT COPYRIGHT LAW. Right now I can create and distribute my own work, as can you. People are doing this RIGHT NOW.
Do you believe that people will hear about/obtain this hypothetical work, probably not, unless it’s very good – but guess what: THIS IS TRUE REGARDLESS OF WHETHER COPYRIGHT LAW EXISTS…
Why do you persist in saying this illogical statement over and over? Sorry if I seem boorish with the caps… but your statements regarding this are out of touch with reality: meaning the antithesis of what your maintaining is actually HAPPENING – now. You don’t agree with copyright law, OK – who does here? – but you persist in ascribing all this completely false effects to it beiong there like “no one can make cultural artifacts because copyright is there”. Complete crap.
sweet a sport nerds can play ;)
jk, they can’t kill the hydro
Dear #45, maybe T.t.Cat
You’re the nazi full of complete crap. How can you possibly make a work in response to another work when you haven’t see the other work? That’s what file-sharing is for – so that one has access to the work to make a response. Also, most response works fall under “derivative works” which is also prohibited under copyright. In addition, how could you possibly communicate with other people about your response work if you are unable to supply the original work to them? Culture is not just about “consuming” other people’s works, nor is it about creating one’s own works out of nowhere. Rather, it is about socializing about and responding to what is already there, and that is impossible with copyright.
Everything you write is full of crap. You must be retarded for misunderstanding everything I write.
Sincerely,
Roze
@39
um he’s right china isn’t communist. it’s because they allow free enterprise that they aren’t. just because i call a sheep a horse doesn’t make it so dumbarse.
and the limitations aren’t strict
@42 technological products that have the same performance as the did 20 years ago actually should experience exponential deflation. they’re not potatoes.
Well looks like united states of ass ho@es have taken over France too and i thought they were only in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I for one will now add lying about piracy habits in addition to my other anti-market research habits which currently include using false names, age, sex and location
http://www.torrentnews.net : french news P2P
France will bew now the best testing ground for our latest stealthy tools! We can even conduct experiments with fake IP addresses!
I’t going to be a lot of fun!
Are you my mummy?
Nah, the national “sport” is and will remain to be, denouncing your neighbours’ illegal building works or illegal job or moonlighting activity…
Just like they did to the Jews here in 39-45
The French are always re-fighting the last war.
Nah, the national “sport” is and will remain to be, denouncing your neighbours’ illegal building works or illegal job or moonlighting activity…
Just like they did to the Jews and Gypsies here in 39-45
The French are always re-fighting the last war.
Mah, non ci capisco niente!!!
ciaoooo
The French don’t deserve to download illegal content anyhow. They are to busy trying to impress gullible young girls, arguing about which car shape is the wierdest and hating Americans.
http://www.h33t.com where all French bastards are not welcome.
Ma vorrei capirci di più…
http://rickyrany.myblog.it/
10% is national sport?
Uhm…
i think the percentages are more around 70%….at least 70% of the online population has committed some sort of “illegal operation” during their everyday browsing, most often uncosciously.
The internet is for anyone, likewise, so should its content.
Hey guys,
you reminded me of a documentary named “steal this film”, http://www.stealthisfilm.com
My opinion is that copyright law is first made to protect the “author”’s right in having credit for what he has created and to give him a chance of making a “decent” living out of it.
The author’s right not the distributors’ !!!
and this is the first time in my life that i see an industry dealing with its clients as criminals and chasing them!!
OUI, VIVE LA REVOLUTION !!!!
FUCK ^__^
as long i dont see those rich guys in holywood and elsewhere living a more normal life or p’diddy daddy losing his what 12billion mansion. i dont care if im not paying for their copyright. music and movies should be stupid cheap to buy. it like food u consume it then u put it away until u consume it again maybe a few month later…. it is different with software programs where modern people use it everyday to do their meaningless things so yeah i buy the lic. therefor hopefully get good support if needet.
so, p’daddy, mariah carey, metallica… all i pay u is: nothing for your creativ product to have.
All noncommercial copying must be legalized.
The only victims of “pirating” are the ones that are too stubborn or too stupid to change their business model to fit with the technological advances of our time.
Like the horse carriages and typewriters perished, so shall the old music and movie industry. And from the ashes a far more productive and successful industry will emerge.
keep fighting and downloading French
China is like a big Auschwitz concentration camp. Take miserable people, make them work 6 days per week 14 hours a day, sleeping at their workplace, paid 200 ucks a month, and fired after they are 30yo because they start to work slower.
And who supports that heaven ? It’s the USA \m/
But from a fascist government to another one, it’s only normal everything goes alright.
The same as the USA were so keen on doing business with the nazis, from 1933 and until 1942.
What a great nation ! I’m glad I’m not an american retard :D
Btw, as a french dude, I download (I wouldn’t call it pirate) music and movies. And buy cds/dvds quite often.
If that law passes, I’ll just rent a seedbox in a foreign country, get a usenet access, and stop buying cds/dvds.
As usual, our politicians are complete retards. But that’s not big news, and it’s true in all the lobbies-lead countries.
piracy is theft
piracy is the illegal manufacture and sale of conterfeit products. piracy is stealing revenue which belongs to the copyright holders
filesharing is copying
i think all those figures are way too low!!
Sharing is a good thing
– GOD
I don’t just pirate, I also smoke weed and chase girls. I quess these things are all connected… I’m a very bad man. SO SUE ME! ARRRRR!!
great artical.
With the bitorrent protocol it is impossible to know how many files are exhanged.
Sure, y measuring traffic on trackers one can find a botom limit but this is all.
This is because each torrent file can be downloaded multiple time from any computer and each of them can be used to seek a torent multiple time as well.
most people I know in france don`t really bother downloading movies from torrent sites anyway because it takes far too long. Mostly people just go and rent a dvd then rip it, pass the copy amongst their friends and family to copy the dvdrip at their leisure. It is incredibly easy to rip a dvd once you know how to. Yes piracy is a national pass time in france but coming up with this insane idea of ‘ three strikes and you’re out’ will change absolutely nothing.
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