The French Parliament strengthens the fight against audiovisual piracy

Published on : 09/29/2021 – 12:00

The Parliament must adopt, Wednesday, September 29, a bill strengthening the fight against piracy, which weighs heavily on the audiovisual sector, by merging the CSA and Hadopi for the benefit of a super regulator in this area.

The bill on “the regulation and protection of access to cultural and digital works”, on which deputies and senators have reached an agreement, must be definitively validated by a final vote of the National Assembly.

The new law takes up several points of a broader audiovisual reform, put under wraps due to the Covid-19 health crisis.

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The flagship measure is the creation of the Audiovisual and Digital Communication Regulatory Authority (Arcom), a merger between the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) and the High Authority for the dissemination of works and the protection of rights on the Internet. (Hadopi), the public anti-piracy agency.

For the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, this new entity will be competent, “whether it is to fight against piracy, to protect minors or to defend the public against disinformation and hatred online”, among others .

“Vital for the audiovisual and cinema sectors”

The text also gives the holders of broadcasting rights for sporting events – particularly affected by piracy – the possibility of acting in summary proceedings to obtain the blocking or dereferencing of sites causing them “serious and repeated harm”.

Finally, it requires a prior declaration to the Ministry of Culture, six months before the transfer of a catalog of cinematographic or audiovisual works.

Roselyne Bachelot judged this text “vital for the audiovisual and cinema sectors”, in a context disrupted by digital developments, while acknowledging that it did not constitute a “big bang”.

While these measures were generally well received by parliamentarians, the whole project was judged by some, on the left and on the right, not ambitious enough in the face of the challenges of new technologies and the weight of digital platforms.

The rapporteur in the Senate, Jean-Raymond Hugonet (LR), thus estimated last week that this text “n ‘[était] not the one that will allow the audiovisual sector to adapt to the new world driven by platforms “.

With AFP