Interesting thread. So after two years of a tougher copyright enforcement law, what have we learned?
1. France has some how not descended into tyranny
2. A lot more people are obeying the law at a comparatively modest cost in law enforcement.
Who woulda thunk it?
Score one for law enforcement!
Quote:
everal other countries, including South Korea and New Zealand, have adopted French-style anti-piracy measures. In South Korea, where the law took effect in 2009, music sales rose 12 percent in 2010 and 6 percent in 2011, according to the music industry federation. Sales in other countries mostly continued to decline.
Lawmakers in Britain have also approved a three-strikes law, though it has yet to be implemented. But there is other evidence in Europe that tougher online copyright enforcement can lift media industry revenues, at least briefly. Music sales rose 10 percent in Sweden in 2009, for example, after the country tightened up its copyright laws, bringing previously lax standards into line with E.U. norms.
Mr. Nègre, at Universal Music, said it was probably no coincidence that Sweden and France had produced the two big European success stories in the legitimate digital music market: the streaming services Spotify and Deezer. These companies — the former was founded in Sweden, the latter in France — resemble pirate sites in that they give users access to millions of songs free, at least for their basic services.
Even opponents of Hadopi acknowledge that the law has resulted in a change in online behavior, though they dispute whether its effect on music industry sales has been beneficial.
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One of the benefits of law enforcement is that it creates space for creation of LEGAL services. There would never have been an Itunes if Napster had been allowed to flourish and would have never been a Spotify if the illegal networks had been allowed to proceed unchecked in Sweden.