New legal tools to fight against new forms of piracy

We are encouraged by the vote of this law which aims to better protect creative works against modern forms of piracy.

Creation of the Regulatory Authority for Audiovisual and Digital Communication - ARCOM

ARCOM, an independent administrative authority, is the result of the merger of the High Authority for the Protection of Rights on the Internet (Hadopi) and the Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA). On XNUMX January XNUMX, the HADOPI will be dissolved and the CSA will be renamed ARCOM. ARCOM will have more powers (conciliation procedure, investigative powers), both in the field of protection of works and in the field of audiovisual and digital regulation (fight against piracy, protection of minors, fight against disinformation and online hate) and will ensure a more efficient sharing of information with the French Competition Authority.

ARCOM will have nine members: three appointed by the President of the French Senate, three by the President of the French National Assembly, two each by the Conseil d’Etat and the Cour de Cassation. The President of ARCOM is appointed by the President of the Republic after receiving the opinion of Parliament.

Creation of a "black list" of infringing sites

This measure aims to combat the issues stemming from circumvention sites (or "mirror sites") that reproduce the content of an infringing site, whose blocking has already been ordered by the court, by making public a list of these infringing sites, and to target the advertising resources of pirate sites according to a "follow the money" strategy, by forcing advertisers to make public any commercial relationship with a site on the blacklist. In addition, this public list will make it possible to support the legal actions the copyright holders.

Article L. XNUMX-XNUMX of the French Intellectual Property Code allows ARCOM to draw up a list of sites that "seriously and repeatedly infringe copyright or related rights". Once drawn up, the list will be made public and its purpose will be to oblige advertisers, advertising agencies and other payment services to declare publicly, at least once a year, the existence of their business relations with the sites on the list.

Implementation of strategic orders

The Law provides for a new section XNUMX integrated into Chapter III of Title III of Book III of the French Sports Code, entitled: “Fight against the illicit broadcasting of sports events and competitions" and comprising two articles: Articles L. XNUMX-XNUMX and L. XNUMX-XNUMX against sites illegally broadcasting a sports competition.

Pursuant to Article L. XNUMX-XNUMX of the French Sports Code, any right holder (professional league, exclusive broadcaster) may refer the matter to the president of the judicial court, under the accelerated procedure on the merits or in summary proceedings, in order to obtain all "proportionate measures to prevent or stop this infringement, against any person likely to contribute to remedying it", such as measures to block, withdraw or discontinue a site.

In the event that the site is not identified at the date of the Court's order, the right holder may communicate to ARCOM the data enabling the infringing communication service to be identified, so that it can order the persons concerned by the order, such as Internet access providers, to make access to the said services impossible.

ARCOM will also be able to extend court orders to mirror sites, i.e. sites that reproduce all or most of the content of a site that has been condemned in court, without further intervention by the judge.