Le contrôle de l'âge pour accéder aux sites X fait son retour. Le régulateur du numérique a lancé une consultation sur un projet de référentiel. La solution retenue est celle de la vérification via la carte bancaire. Elle sera jugée valable au moins pour un temps. Cela, malgré les limites régulièrement pointées de cette approche.

Je pense que cette news va faire mal aux fesses de beaucoup d’entre vous (désolé ^^) ! Figurez-vous que très bientôt, pour mater votre petite vidéo X sur vos sites de cul préférés, va falloir sortir la carte bleue . Et ouais, c’est la nouvelle lubie de nos chers dirigeants qui veulent à tout prix nous protéger, enfin surtout protéger les enfants de toutes ces cochonneries qui pullulent sur la toile.

Certes, on est tous d’accord sur le principe, mais est-ce qu’on a vraiment besoin de fliquer tout le monde comme ça ? Et surtout, est-ce que c’est vraiment efficace comme méthode ?

Parce que bon, soyons honnêtes deux minutes, un ado un peu dégourdi qui veut à tout prix mater un film de boules, va forcement trouver un moyen de contourner la censure hein. Quitte à piquer la carte de papa et maman pendant qu’ils ont le dos tourné. Ou alors il ira sur des sites plus underground, pas forcément très recommandables, et là bonjour les dégâts…

Mais bon, c’est comme ça, c’est la loi, et va falloir faire avec. L’ Arcom , le gendarme de l’audiovisuel, vient donc de pondre son fameux référentiel (docx) qui détaille toutes les mesures que les sites pornos devront mettre en place pour vérifier que leurs utilisateurs ont bien la majorité sexuelle. Et autant vous dire que ça rigole pas !

Déjà, va falloir prouver son âge avec sa carte bancaire . Alors ok, c’est pas forcément l’idéal niveau vie privée, mais au moins c’est efficace. Enfin, en théorie , parce qu’en pratique, rien n’empêche un ado de 16-17 ans d’avoir une carte bleue. Ensuite, les sites devront mettre en place un contrôle d’âge dès la page d’accueil , avant même d’afficher le moindre contenu olé olé. Et ça, ça va en faire râler les plus pressés d’entre vous ^^.

Et attention, c’est pas fini ! Les sites devront aussi s’assurer que leur système de vérification d’âge est fiable à 100% . Alors là, bon courage… Parce qu’entre ceux qui vont essayer de gruger avec de fausses cartes d’identité, des scans retouchés ou je ne sais quoi encore, ça va pas être de la tarte. Mais les éditeurs n’auront pas le choix, car si jamais l’un de leurs sites se fait gauler par l’Arcom en train de diffuser du contenu pornographique à un mineur, c’est pas juste une petite tape sur les doigts qu’ils vont se prendre. Non non, ce sera carrément une amende qui peut aller jusqu’à 250 000 euros, ou 4% du chiffre d’affaires mondial. Autant dire que ça calme direct !

Et si jamais le site fait le mariole et refuse d’obtempérer malgré les mises en demeure, et bien ce sera le blocage pur et simple qui l’attendra. Son nom de domaine sera bloqué par les FAI grâce à la toute POUISSANCE DU BLOCAGE PAR DNS (ah-ah), et basta. Pas de pitié pour les contrevenants !

Bon, et sinon, ça va se passer comment concrètement tout ce bordel ?

Eh bien figurez-vous que l’Arcom, dans son immense bonté, a prévu une période de transition de 6 mois . Pendant ce temps-là, les sites porno pourront se contenter d’une simple vérification de la carte bancaire, sans forcément aller jusqu’à l’authentification forte avec le fameux 3D Secure. Mais, ils devront tous avoir mis en place des solutions qui respecteront le cahier des charges strict de l’Arcom, avec notamment une sécurisation sans faille des données personnelles des utilisateurs. Je sais d’avance comment ça va se terminer… loool.

Enfin, dernière petite subtilité, et non des moindres : ce contrôle d’âge ne s’appliquera pas seulement aux sites basés en France, mais aussi à tous ceux installés à l’étranger et accessibles depuis la France. Alors ok, pour les gros sites genre Jacquie et Michel ou Dorcel, ça devrait pas poser trop de problèmes, mais pour les petits sites plus modestes, ça risque d’être une autre paire de manches…

Au moins vous savez maintenant ce qui vous attend.

Source

For more than a decade, the French government has produced a report detailing the digital content consumption habits of French internet users.

Currently produced by telecoms regulator Arcom, the content consumption barometer report quantifies consumption of major content categories including movies, TV shows, live sports broadcasts, music, video games, software, and audiobooks, among others. It aims to profile consumers of content, map changes in consumption habits and sources, and gauge public perception of legal content availability. Arcom published the report’s 2023 edition yesterday.

Overall Exposure to Cultural Content

In terms of overall exposure to digital cultural and sporting content, the report estimates that 87% of internet users aged 15 and over, around 45 million people, were consumers in 2023. That’s up from 86% in 2022.

Of the dozen content categories covered in the report, movies were consumed by 55%, music by 50%, and TV series by 49%, meaning no change in the most popular content categories consumed in 2023 versus last year.

Paying (And Not Paying) For Content

For 2023, Arcom reports that 61% of consumers or 27.5 million people, paid to consume digital content online. This year the average monthly spend was €38.00 ($41.00) per month, a significant increase from the €32.00 ($34.50) reported in 2022. The report notes that this is the biggest increase in average spending in recent years, with Arcom describing the uplift as “remarkable” in the context of price inflation.

One of Arcom’s key responsibilities is to reduce piracy rates. In 2021, around 27% of internet users consumed at least one piece of pirated content, a figure that reduced to 24% in 2022.

Arcom introduces 2023’s overall piracy rate as follows: “The fall observed in 2022 in the proportion of illegal consumption of digital cultural and sporting content has continued this year,” while later adding, “..this continues the decline seen in 2022.”

While this year’s figures are provided, the “fall observed in 2022” was actually the difference between an overall rate of 27% in 2021 and 24% in 2022, in other words a three percentage point reduction in the overall piracy rate, aka success. Perhaps a less ambiguous statement would’ve been more helpful to describe the state of play this year.

In 2023 there was zero reduction in the overall piracy rate, i.e. the rate is static year-on-year. In common with 2022, in 2023 around 24% of internet users still consumed at least one piece of pirated content. The report describes this as illegal content consumption “leveling off.”

Appetite For Piracy Wanes With Age

In common with most other studies conducted in Europe, piracy rates are higher among younger people in France and lower among the older generations.

“The 15-24 and 25-39 age groups are the biggest consumers of illegal digital cultural and sporting content (46% and 36% respectively). Conversely, only 16% of 40–59-year-olds and 7% of 60+ year-olds are involved,” the report notes.

When drilling down into content categories, the report says that a drop in illegal consumption was observed in a quarter.

“This is particularly the case for films and music, two of the three content categories with the highest levels of illegal consumption by internet users in 2022 (-1 point each, to 12% and 6% of internet users respectively),” Arcom reports.

“While illegal consumption of TV series, the second most pirated content in 2022, remains stable in 2023 within the internet user population (9% illegal consumption), there has been a slight fall among those who consume it (18%, -1 point).”

Consumption of Illegal Streams & Downloads Fall

The two most popular methods of obtaining infringing content in France are streaming and direct downloading, often referred to as DDL. However, this year’s report from Arcom finds that both methods experienced declining popularity in 2023.

While remaining the most frequently used method among consumers overall (49% and 38% respectively), streaming fell two percentage points and downloading four percentage points versus rates in 2022.

Arcom says that these declines in two key categories demonstrate “the positive effects of the anti-piracy measures implemented in 2022 and 2023.” While that may well be the case, if overall piracy rates remained static this year, something else must’ve taken up the slack.

As the Arcom graph shows, remarkable gains are on display in two categories. In 2022, services in the ‘Usenet and newsgroups’ category were used by 11% of French internet users but in 2023, that figure has increased to 16%. The other category climbing quickly, Cloud services, reached a peak of 21% in 2020 and then fell to 19% and 16% in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

In 2023, improved privacy versus other illicit content access methods may have contributed to Cloud services’ 2020-equalling usage rate of 21%.

Illegal Access Rates Overall

Arcom reports a “stabilization” in illicit consumption of live sports broadcasts for 2023. This year’s rate of 4% is identical to that reported in 2022, but still an improvement over 2021 where 6% of internet users consumed liver sports from illegal sources.

In summary, illegal streaming was used by 49% of internet users in 2023, direct downloading (DDL) by 38%, social networks by 32%, with peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent hanging on to around 26% of users.

The surprise package of Usenet (16%) and Cloud services (21%) returning to rates not seen since 2020 might be the trend to watch since Arcom has much less control over these methods. Deterring the use of streaming and downloading services may be considered a success, but that could be tempered if more complex issues are encountered further down the road.

Arcom’s 2023 Barometer report is available here (pdf, French)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Frenchie Shore est la nouvelle émission de téléréalité qui mise sur le sexe et la vulgarité pour exister et capter des parts de marché. Le programme est diffusé à la fois à la télévision (MTV) et sur le net (Paramount+). De quoi faire lever quelques sourcils à l'Arcom, le régulateur audiovisuel ? [Lire la suite]

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With millions of monthly users, BitTorrent’s reign at the top of the file-sharing seemed unstoppable in 2007, but the French government had other plans.

Presented to the Senate in June 2008, what would later become France’s Hadopi law envisioned a crackdown on peer-to-peer file-sharing via a ‘graduated response’ mechanism, with around eight million local BitTorrent users the primary targets. The Hadopi agency created to administer the new law was initially kept busy but in the background, file-hosting and video streaming platforms were providing a taste of things to come.

By 2011, once-dominant BitTorrent indexing sites found themselves suddenly outnumbered by ‘one-click’ hosting and similar sites including 4shared, Megaupload, Mediafire, Rapidshare and Hotfile. As the threat grew, rightsholders deployed the pejorative term ‘cyberlocker’ to describe ‘rogue’ file-hosting services, while BitTorrent-focused anti-piracy outfits found their peer-to-peer monitoring tools somewhat less relevant.

The inherent technical genius of the BitTorrent protocol means it continues today, silently moving around large files to millions of users. At the same time, the way internet users consume content has been transformed. Three years after BitTorrent traffic hit an all-time low in 2015, pirate streaming platform Openload was generating more traffic than Hulu and HBO Go.

Meanwhile, dedicated pirate IPTV services were hitting the mainstream, shifting the market once again and leaving Hadopi and successor Arcom with a decreasing pool of pirates they could monitor directly. Consisting mostly of those still using BitTorrent, the pool excluded users of streaming sites, illegal IPTV providers, file-hosting platforms, and VPN services.

Arcom Credited for BitTorrent Slump

In official documents published as part of the French 2024 budget bill, Arcom’s twin role as both audiovisual/telecoms regulator and anti-piracy agency accompanies accounts of recent achievements and those attributable to the infamous “graduated response” program.

“The graduated response, for its part, makes it possible to fight against illicit practices on a peer-to-peer basis,” reports Clair Landais, the government’s secretary general with responsibility for the protection of rights and freedoms.

“If, in 2010, more than 8 million Internet users used peer-to-peer for criminal purposes, the efforts of Hadopi and now Arcom to put an end to these practices have made it possible to reduce them by almost by 75%. In 2022, 2 million Internet users have illicitly consumed peer-to-peer content, or 22% of Internet users engaging in illicit practices.”

While the history books provide much-needed nuance, Hadopi and now Arcom’s efforts to reduce piracy go beyond enforcement. The regulator aims to educate the public on the importance of supporting legal services while encouraging the availability of those platforms in the marketplace.

“Building on these encouraging results, due to the constant progression of the legal offer, in particular subscription video on demand (VOD) services and music streaming offers, combined with the anti-piracy policy led by the public authorities and rights holders, the latter adjust their actions in the fight against peer-to-peer,” Landais notes.

This version of events suggests the massive reduction in BitTorrent piracy led to the creation of legal video platforms. In reality, the availability of attractive legal content also played a key role in the reduction of piracy rates and continues to do so.

Arcom’s Piracy Blocking Program

Referrals to the ‘graduated response’ scheme have been trending down since 2016, with an 11% decline in 2022 alone. The report predicts the trend will continue, with another 10% reduction in 2023 followed by a modest 5% annual reduction from 2024.

The earlier highlighted shifts in consumption leave Arcom with plenty of work to do. The threat posed by illicit IPTV services means the fight against live sports piracy is a priority, along with Arcom’s site blocking work and its ongoing game of cat-and-mouse with domain-hopping mirror sites.

According to Arcom data, during the whole of 2022 the regulator received 85 referrals from four sports rights holders (two publishers of audiovisual programs and two sports leagues), covering ten sports competitions, which led to the subsequent blocking of 767 domain names by local ISPs. That was merely a warm-up.

“During the period January-July 2023, the use of this system increased. Arcom thus received 85 referrals— but in only seven months – from the same four sports rights holders (two publishers of audiovisual programs and two sports leagues), covering ten sports competitions, for a total of 1,318 domain names effectively blocked by ISPs,” the report continues.

“Given the effectiveness of the system and its high use by rights holders, a maintenance, or even an increase in the number of blocked domain names, would bring the total to around 700 number of domain names blocked for the last quarter — approximately 2,000 domain names blocked for the whole of 2023,” the report predicts.

Arcom says that on average the processing time for sports rightsholders’ referrals is currently 3 to 5 days, but that may decrease beginning in autumn 2023 and more widely in 2024, following the effective implementation of automation tools.

Tackling Mirror Sites

So-called mirror sites (blocked platforms that subsequently reappear online) are handled under Article L. 331-27 of the Intellectual Property Code introduced in October 2022. During the last quarter of 2022, Arcom received 22 referrals from four rights holders, covering 45 domain names.

Between January and July 2023, Arcom received 32 referrals from three rights holders, covering a total of 182 domain names. The administrative rules for blocking mirror sites are more complex, generating a two-month delay before they can be reported to Arcom.

The regulator says it usually processes files in eight or nine days but since blocking of IPTV services requires advanced verification, some requests may take longer to handle. Overall, current mirror site processing time is approximately 14 days.

“This is the reason why the average time for notification of blocking measures for sites illicitly broadcasting sporting events and competitions or mirror sites was set, provisionally, at 10 days for 2023 with an overall trend towards a reduction in this deadline over the period 2024-2026 with a target of 7 days,” the report concludes.

The full report, first reported by NextInpact , is available here (French, pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Un amendement a été adopté à l'Assemblée nationale, dans le cadre d'un projet de loi visant notamment à réguler la pornographie sur Internet. Son objectif : imposer un écran noir sur tous les sites X tant que les internautes français voulant y accéder n'ont pas prouvé qu'ils sont majeurs. [Lire la suite]

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The World Cup only takes place every four years so when the opportunity to see the world’s best players arrived again last year, an estimated 1.5 billion eventually tuned in to see the elite square off in the final.

Millions cheered on the French national team as the defending champions pursued glory against Argentina. After the French lost in a dramatic penalty shoot-out, for some it became a tournament to forget. For French telecoms regulator Arcom, the end of the competition signaled the start of research to determine how citizens consumed World Cup 2022 and how France benefited from it financially.

World Cup 2022 – Audiovisual Broadcasting Review

Published this week, Arcom’s study reveals that more than six out of 10 French people watched or listened to at least one live match during the World Cup, a figure that rose to 73% in respect of all content, including replays, match analysis, and behind-the-scenes reporting.

Of those who watched live matches, 90% did so from home, with television the medium of choice for 96% of respondents. Around one in five football fans watched at least one match on a smartphone, with 14% and 7% viewing on computers and tablets, respectively.

Most Fans Watched Matches for Free

Football is traditionally seen as a sport of the people, with national teams serving their countries and citizens rather than their usual corporate paymasters. For these and similar reasons, some countries have laws or regulations in place that prevent the whole of the World Cup from being locked away behind TV subscription packages.

In France, all matches played by the national team must be broadcast on a widely accessible system, at no charge to the public. The same applies to the opening match, semi-finals, and the final, regardless of which teams are playing.

Free TV broadcaster TF1 won the rights to air these games in 2022 and, as a result, 87% of those who watched live World Cup matches did so on TF1, legally and for free.

Paywalls Guarantee Piracy

Of the 64 matches played in the tournament, 36 matches were broadcast exclusively by beIN Sports. Since users of beIN must have a subscription, piracy of World Cup matches was effectively guaranteed when more than half the matches in the tournament were placed behind a paywall.

According to the study, 18% of live match consumers said they’d watched matches using a paid service. Of all live match consumers, 8% reported watching games using illegal platforms, with 5% using live sports streaming platforms or pirate IPTV applications, and 4% using social media, a figure roughly on par with illicit consumption during the rest of the year.

The conundrum for Arcom is that if it decided to crack down on the most prolific football pirates by demographic, it would also be cracking down on the fans most likely to spend money on legal content.

“The 15-34 age group, the leading group of illegal users (12%), are also the most inclined to use a pay option (26%),” Arcom reports.

Numerous studies have drawn similar conclusions over the years after finding links between the most engaged consumers and their consumption of content from both legal and illegal sources. A report from the EU last week found that 60% of pirates also buy content legally.

Paywalls = Profit

In the short term, the answer may lie in site-blocking measures. During the World Cup alone, France ordered the blocking of 83 domains in connection with football piracy.

Arcom hasn’t indicated if that had any effect on piracy levels but a small observation might be that if half the games weren’t behind a paywall, site blocking wouldn’t even be necessary. The flip side is that 15% of people who watched live matches took out paid subscriptions to do so and beIN Sports did very nicely out of that.

“Entirely dedicated to the 2022 World Cup, with daily coverage from 10 a.m. to midnight and all matches broadcast live, beIN Sports 1 benefited strongly from the competition from an advertising point of view. Total gross daily investment for the channel on match broadcast days amounted to around 16.1 million euros,” Arcom reports.

Arcom’s report can be found here ( 1 , 2 , pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Insatisfaits par les services de streaming et leur multiplication, voire pour des raisons idéologiques, nombreux sont ceux qui continuent d’avoir recours au piratage. [Lire la suite]

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Une nouvelle campagne contre le piratage sera diffusée à partir de juin. Elle reprend les codes de la psychiatrie, en mettant en scène trois personnes qui essaient de ne pas replonger dans les méandres du piratage. Comme des addicts. [Lire la suite]

Abonnez-vous aux newsletters Numerama pour recevoir l’essentiel de l’actualité https://www.numerama.com/newsletter/