France's 3-strikes law, also known as the Hadopi law, is to be revised. It's one of the first policy initiatives announced by the new French president, François Hollande. But exactly what is planned for Hadopi is not yet clear. There will first be a consultation, and in the meantime the existing 3-strikes measures wll continue.

The announcement of the Hadopi revision was made last week. The revision will take place in the context of a wider policy review of the cultural industries. The government will hold a consultation, set to begin before the summer exodus from Paris. According to some reports, it last for around 6 months.

The Hadopi revision will be overeseen by the two Ministers involved - the Digital Economy Minister Fleur Pellerin, and the Culture Minister, Aurélie Filippetti.

According to a report in Numerama, Fleur Pellerin wants to seal the fate of the Hadopi by the end of 2012.

Aurélie Filippetti has been critical of the Hadopi system and its effectiveness to date. She went on the record last week, as reported in Le Figaro, saying that the 'system is ineffective and negative from the point of view of he message'.

She said that the Hadopi has not 'enabled the release of and finance for artists'.

Given the major economy crisis facing France and Euro, a system against downloading of music might seem an unlikely political priority. However, the creative industries are politically powerful in France, and the system was widely disliked by Internet users - two factors that combine to push it up the agenda. In addition, recent data emerged that the Hadopi law was ineffective against its own objective. (See Hadopi - has it massaged the numbers? )

François Hollande did not originally believe that Hadopi should be an important part of his goverment's agenda. and he had wavered on the matter, according to reports in Numerama.

However, he appears to have been convinced to include it.

Of course, Mme Pellerin and Mme Filippetti will be subject to heavy lobbying from the cultural industries, and we remain intrigued as to the eventual outcome.

This is an original article from Iptegrity.com. You may re-publish it under a Creative Commons licence, but you should cite my name and provide a link back to iptegrity.com. Media and Academics - please cite asMonica Horten, Will President Hollande strike out Hadopi? www.iptegrity.com, 27 May 2012 . Commercial users - please contact me

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