Le droit comme gestion de l’incertitude. L’infraction de « défaut de sécurisation » dans Hadopi

Abstract

The creation and implementation of the Haute Autorité pour la diffusion des œuvres et la protection des droits sur Internet (High Authority for the diffusion of works and the protection of rights on the Internet, or Hadopi) is an occasion to observe the extent to which copyright is a performative system. The French legislator, to cope with the steady rise of downloads of copyright-protected digital content, attempts to fill “by law” the gap opened by the digital (r)evolution in the general anti-counterfeiting regime. This article follows the attempts to reconcile several conflicting dynamics – metrological frailties, difficulties of definition, diversity of infractions. Ultimately, a newly-created infraction, defined by unprecedented legal, material and moral components, provides a reference point allowing to restore – albeit tentatively – the authority of law on undefinable, unseizable objects, by defining as infringement the “failure to secure” one’s Internet connection.

Keywords

• copyright
• Hadopi
• performativity
• counterfeiting
• failure to secure