Lescure report recommends tax on smartphones, end of Hadopi, change in VOD windows

Former Canal Plus chief Pierre Lescure’s report on the adaptation of France’s cultural policies to the digital age has suggested that a new tax be levied on laptops, smartphones and tablets to help support the content industry’s migration to digital, that the Hadopi commission be abolished and that the strict rules governing video content distribution windows be relaxed.

The report, which was delivered to minister of culture Aurélie Filippetti yesterday, said that manufacturers of computers, smartphones, tablets and connected TVs could be subject to a tax of up to 1% to compensate the transfer of the value of content. Former Canal Plus chief Lescure also envisages that a current tax on private copies could be merged with other taxes or replaced.

Lescure has also proposed that the powers of the Hadopi, the organisation set up to combat internet piracy through a controversial ‘three strikes’ regime, should be transferred to media regulator the CSA. The Hadopi’s controversial power to cut off the internet connection of persistent infringers of copyright would be abolished.

The report also recommends that France’s system of content windowing should be relaxed, with a possible reduction of the time after which movies can be shown on video-on-demand services reduced from 36 months after their theatrical release to 18 months.

Hadopi president Marie-Françoise Marais welcomed the report as broadly justifying the legitimacy and usefulness of the body’s mission and said that their consolidation within the framework of a “more global strategy” would give them a solid footing.