Le droit pénal confronté aux atteintes au droit d’auteur et aux droits voisins sur Internet

Abstract

The direct or peer-to-peer downloading of copyrighted or related rights objects that are unlawfully made available to the public on the Internet, as well as their streaming access, are, for Internet users, daily acts. Penalized, they are nevertheless committed massively, without any social disapproval. Banalized, made by opportunity, they form routine infringements whose repression appears difficult to reconcile with the exceptional and subsidiary character of criminal law. Despite some adaptations, the failure of the criminal law prompted the legislator to assign investigative and deterrent functions to an independent administrative authority, the HADOPI. While the exclusion of direct downloads and streaming from its field of action is unfortunate, the measure of a graded response, dissuasive and educational, is adapted to the routine character of downloads by peer-to-peer protocol.

Keywords

• copyright law
• routine infringements
• download
• streaming
• related rights
• HADOPI