French anti-piracy authority Hadopi passes milestone of 10 mln warning letters

French public authority Hadopi has reached the milestone of 10 million warning letters sent to web users to protect the interests of copyright owners, reports Les Echos. Created in 2009 and operational since 2010, the watchdog is tasked with alerting consumers that their internet connection has been used to download content illegally.

The news, based on data analysed by Next INpact, is proof that the volume of warnings has been increasing during the course of the year. This acceleration is linked to the compensation scheme agreed by the government in March to enable French ISPs to recover the costs incurred in handling the identification requests from Hadopi.

In January, the authority revealed that its action had led to approximately 200 legal cases between 2012 and 2016, of which 72 resulted in convictions.