rights
Fighting piracy
SPPF fights against all kinds of piracy
Sound piracy is a worldwide disease and a serious threat to the sustainability of investments in music creation and production.
This act of infringement of the economic rights of authors, artists, and producers, qualified as counterfeiting, is a criminal offence punishable in France by fines and prison sentences.
Musical counterfeiting resulting, for example, from copies of pre-existing sound or audiovisual recordings made without the producer’s prior authorization or bootlegs of concerts, has never been fully eradicated. Musical counterfeiting which is now spreading on the Internet is taking on new forms and complicates actions against counterfeiters, very often installed and/or hosted abroad in countries that do not respect intellectual property rights.
SPPF’s actions regarding digital piracy
To ensure that your rights are respected, the SPPF is led to:
- Carry out awareness-raising and information actions with both public and community authorities within the framework of the development of suitable rules to effectively combat piracy in the Information Society.
- Collaborate with either other Collective Management Organizations (CMOs), or professional defense bodies or organizations that also have a vocation to defend the interests of the right holders.
The SPPF offers several services to defend your rights on the Internet
On P2P networks with “la réponse graduée”
The “gratuated response” is a mechanism created in June 2009 by the “Création et Internet” law to fight digital piracy on P2P networks. The SPPF transmitted, since 2010, to the HADOPI (which has become the ARCOM since January 1st, 2022) more than 8.2 million official reports of infringements of the illicit making available of phonograms declared to the SPPF and made on P2P networks.
This regulator of audiovisual and digital communication continues the missions originally entrusted to the HADOPI: to defend content protected by authors and neighboring rights in the context of P2P exchanges, to encourage the development of legal offers, mostly in the musical area, and to study public practices and uses.
The ARCOM has been assigned new missions to fight against illicit services broadcasting protected cultural content and so-called “mirror” sites. This regulatory authority is also in charge of identifying and publishing a list intended for users and technical intermediaries of advertising, online payment, or technical hosts to encourage them to stop collaborating with infringing websites. Finally, it must encourage the conclusion of agreements between rights holders and actors likely to put an end to infringements of their creations and productions in the digital environment.
ARCOM’s annual reports are submitted each year to the French Government and Parliament, as well as the publication of studies and barometers on the uses and legal offers of protected content, are available on its website.
Read more
For further information, consult the ARCOM website.
Against “Direct Download” websites and illegal web hosts
Thanks to the partnership established over 10 years ago with the company LeakID, the SPPF has set up a free service for its Members to send automatic notifications of requests to withdraw new releases (albums and/or singles), 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, that have been made illegally available to the public, in the form of hypertext links, to the main “Direct DownLoad” (DDL) sites, to hosts located in France or abroad, or requests for dereferencing from the main search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing).
This automated measure effectively optimizes the fight against digital piracy on the Internet and complements the “graduated response”, which targets P2P exchanges.
How to access this service?
Contact SPPF’s legal service at juridique@sppf.com
Advantages of collective management of your rights by the SPPF
The collective management of rights was implemented by the SPPF from the outset regarding television channels for the broadcasting of music videos and was extended to phonograms for their use, within the framework of the production of background music and telephone on-hold music and in the field of simultaneous and integral cable retransmission.
1 Facilitate the user/producer relationship
2 Boost your musical productions’ visibility
3 Simplify the management of your rights
4 Guarantee the respect of your recordings
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