Almost 9 percent of French internet users received piracy warning

The French government has issued a first warning to more than three million internet users in the past four years as part of its three-strikes policy against internet piracy. That amounts to almost nine percent of all French internet households.

In total, Hadopi, the organization that implements the three-strikes policy, sent 3,249,481 initial warnings to internet subscribers guilty of illegal downloading in the country. 89.6 percent apparently stopped their activities or managed to stay under the radar of the organization, because Hadopi then sent a second warning to 333,723 internet households. Of these, 1502 failed to receive a third warning and 1,289 cases were examined to determine whether prosecution should be instituted. In the end, 116 cases were brought to trial, most of which got away with a warning.

The numbers are apparent from a document released by Hadopi this week, quoting Torrentfreak. From its own survey by Hadopi among 1059 French people, the organization concludes that 73 percent of people who received a warning did not switch to another illegal download platform, while 15 percent indicated that they had. However, internet users have not switched to legal alternatives en masse. 23 percent said they had resorted to a legal platform. At 68 percent, however, the majority of those who had been warned no longer seemed interested in any music or film platform.