For almost two years France has been running its controversial “3 strikes” mechanism to deal with the issue of online digital media piracy.Alleged pirates are sent three warnings before being punished, giving them plenty of time to either mend their ways or take other measures to stop infringements being logged against their accounts.
Since October 2010, rightholders have identified a total of 3 million French IP addresses. Of these, Hadopi considered 1.15 million worthy of a “first strike” notice, 102,854 deserving of a second, and just 340 in line for a third.
From these, Hadopi referred just 14 cases to French prosecutors. Today the first persistent pirate, a craftsman from a small village in eastern France, was summoned to court to receive his punishment, potentially a 1,500 euro fine.