Graduated Response In France: The Clash of Copyright and the Internet

Does a policy of escalating consequences for alleged copyright infringements decrease such incidents? Meyer looks at French laws passed in 2009 that provide for graduated responses up to suspension of Internet access for asserted illicit behavior. Preliminary results reported in 2011 suggest that these laws do decrease such incidents. However, Meyer argues this debate is not just about copyright, but is also used for leverage in the Internet governance debate to support broader content control. The future of the Internet, she says, should not be determined by one set of online issues that weigh the scales unduly against the open information distribution function of the Internet.