The French government is planning a new approach to tackling online piracy, following its much-discussed Hadopi initiative in recent years. Among the new measures will be collaboration between rightsholders and the advertising industry to squeeze ad revenues to piracy sites – something that’s already being tried in the UK and other countries. Payments processing companies like PayPal, Visa and MasterCard are also likely to be involved in a drive to crack down on payments to such sites.
The French government is also looking to enable blocking orders on sites accused of facilitating persistent infringement, although as elsewhere, rightsholders will have to go to court to secure the orders. The most intriguing aspect of the plans, though: “The government will look at the role that sites like YouTube play in the distribution of unauthorised content,” claims TorrentFreak. Although in the context suggested – making it easier for rightsholders to monitor and remove infringing content – YouTube will be sure to cite its Content ID system.
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