Almost everybody in our generation has either downloaded or shared music on the internet; this is not news. Different governments around the world have tried to come up with legal measures to counter music piracy. Most of those measures however, are not effective and do not stop people from downloading music.
In France the government passed the final version of the HADOPI law in October 2009 as a means to encourage compliance with copyrights issues. A government agency with the same name was also created that year. The way the procedure works is quite interesting; it follows three steps. If it is found that you have downloaded music illegally on your computer, the agency will send you an email with the time of the claim. If you are repeating the offense you will receive an official letter within the next six months with similar information. However if you continue your internet connection will be stopped, from two months up to a year; in the mean time you will still have to pay for the connection and for other fees.
Is this working? According to many people in France, the answer is no. The fist reason is that the law is difficult to implement and it is difficult to keep track of all the connections and downloads. The second reason is that there are always going to be alternative ways for people to download music; and the websites will find a way to get around it. This example makes it hard to believe that legislation can keep up with technology regarding music piracy issues.
I agree that it could prove difficult to enforce such laws especially in countries like US where it could be considered as infringement of privacy because in order to track illegal downloading it becomes necessary to monitor ones web activity and not everyone will be willing got do so.
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