Billboard reported Friday that the French government has started legislation "designed to control online piracy" through a controversial law that creates a new independent authority, HADOPI, that "will act on the request of rights holders, and will be entitled to demand from Internet service providers the identity of copyright-infringing computer users." The HADOPI will be in charge of "issuing warnings and potentially cutting infringers' Internet subscription" via a three-step process.

The new law has yet to pass through the French government's two Houses of Parliament, but if enacted the HADOPI will begin by warning users via an e-mail that their infringements have been noted. If the Internet user continues to illegally download, the HADOPI will send a second warning, but by registered letter. No other warning will be given if the user continues to infringe on copyrights and the HADOPI "will be entitled to cut the Internet access of the user for three to 12 months, which can be lowered to one to three months if the infringer commits to stop illicit downloading." Debates over the law are expected to begin soon, aiming to pass the law by early next year.

International music industry trade group IFPI is applauding recommendations made in a new British report about "the potential hazards the Internet can pose to children." The Byron Report is being accepted and implemented by the British government, calling for new gaming review systems and having the British Department for Children Schools and Families and the Department for Culture Media and Sport "vowing to work with industry, schools and parents to ensure children and young people remain safe in the online world." Billboard also reports that the IFPI is planning its "own guide for parents and teachers informing them on how to obtain music safely and legally online."

The merits of commending the new report on Internet safety are obvious, so it is no surprise the IFPI would welcome it. At the same time, one has to wonder how illegal music downloading is connected to the fears of the violent nature of online games. Regardless, as Billboard notes, greater fears of identity theft and online fraud were pertinent in the report and it is possible to understand where fears of children and illegal downloading would come in.

Unfortunately, despite the merits and value in the Byron Report, the fact that the IFPI would applaud it so greatly only speaks to the lengths that trade group is willing to go to prohibit illegal downloading. With as much resistance as the IFPI is facing in a number of countries about having Internet providers turn over users that illegally download, the connection to fears based on children's access to the Internet makes sense because it markets the IFPI to consumers who might otherwise be unaware of their existence.

The Associated Press last week reported that the record industry is fighting a major losing battle against illegal downloading, which outpaces legal downloading alternatives 20-to-1, causing losses in the billions of dollars. Meanwhile, revenue from digital music sales has not made any inroads toward recovering money lost by the dying CD, rising just 40% to $2.9 billion during 2007 after doubling in 2005 and tripling in 2006. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry also told the AP, "CD sales fell 11 percent between 2005 and 2006 and were likely to drop further in 2007," and digital revenue "is also showing signs of slowing."

The IFPI also said that "digital downloads have grown in five years to account for 15 % of the world's music sales, with more than 500 legally licensed music sites selling around 6 million tracks of music." The industry's fight against piracy has received massive support in France, where the government of President Nicholas Sarkozy has proposed to have Internet service providers there "automatically disconnect customers involved in piracy." Japan leads digital downloads, both illegal and legal, with sales and piracy mostly working through consumers' phones.

Although this devastating report indicates that the record industry is still in a dire situation, the developments in legal downloading throughout the last few months in 2007 and the first month of 2008 seem to set a more optimistic tone. Whether the disabling of anti-piracy technology from all music labels will allow growth this year, is obviously yet to be seen, but the benefits of the music available now would seem to outpace the availability of media available illegally. The problem of paying for products still remains for those consumers, but the quality of new MP3 tracks is finally at an acceptable level for those that look for the difference.