A new law in France enacted to combat piracy of digital media threatens to impact future film releases on DVD and Blu-ray worldwide.
According to this article from The Media Wonk, James Cameron’s Sci-Fi romp Avatar may be one of the many films that falls victim to the fallout that can be caused by government regulation of media.
The HADOPI law, or Creation and Internet law, was introduced to combat piracy of digital media and to regulate Internet access as a means of compliance with international copyright laws. Utilizing a “3-strike” procedure, the law enforces compliance by first emailing a copyright offender with a cease and desist. If a repeated offense is suspected of the offender within six months of the initial email, a letter of warning is mailed to the offender, and their ISP closely monitors their Internet activity for the following year. If the offender strikes out for a third and final time, the ISP is required to suspend all Internet connectivity to the offender for a period of two to 12 months.
Thinking about pirating this one? Not if you're in France!
It was a struggle for French courts to pass the HADOPI law, but content creators have been quick to applaud France’s firm stance on preventing piracy. The law may have a darker side, however, and it’s one that could keep film distributors from planning home video releases that maximize sales.
Tucked away in Chapter IV, Art. 30-4 of the law is a requirement that any film released in theaters in France must see a commercial video release no later than four months after its theatrical release date. While the requirement seems relatively inconspicuous–even good for consumers–it’s one that could easily dictate the release schedule in other nations where the French law does not apply.
Using Avatar as an example of a home video release that a studio might postpone for the holidays, The Media Wonk explains why HADOPI could prevent Fox from releasing the film when they want:
Why not wait until the most propitious time of year to release such a monster title in order to maximize sales? Because it would be against the law in France to wait beyond June 1. And if you release it in France, under EU rules, you’ve effectively released it throughout the EU. And if you release it in the EU, you’ve effectively released it throughout Blu-ray’s Region B, which includes Africa and the Middle East as well as Australia and New Zealand, where they speak a version of English. And if you’re going to release a movie with an English soundtrack in Region B, you might as well release it in Region A, which includes the United States, because it’s going to end up on the Internet sooner or later, probably sooner.
Avatar has broken countless box office records in its five weeks on the silver screen:
- Generating 1.843 billion dollars, it has succeeded Titanic as the highest-grossing movie of all time.
- It has been number one at the box office for every weekend it has played since the movie was released. The last movie to do this was 1999’s The Sixth Sense.
- It was the fastest film to ever reach $500 million domestically.
- It’s the largest opening for a film not based on an existing property (novel, short story) or film (sequel, remake).
- It’s the largest theatrical release for the month of December in history.
With such consumer enthusiasm surrounding Avatar, it’s destined to have outstanding Blu-ray/DVD sales, but we don’t think they’ll be compromised by the HADOPI law as Media Wonk suggests. As the film saw theatrical release in December of 2009, it is highly unlikely that Fox would wait an entire year to release the film on home video just to take advantage of the holiday rush. Even so, second quarter sales are generally slow for the entertainment industry, so Fox may see fit to push Avatar’s home video release beyond the mid-point of the third quarter. With HADOPI in place, however, Fox cannot legally do this in France, and the repercussions of that may force the film out worldwide in early June.
No matter Fox’s intentions with Avatar’s release, The Media Wonk’s scenario could certainly unfold for movies with an April or May debut. As the typical time frame between a film’s theatrical release and its home video release is approximately six months, films released April or May might have their Blu-ray/DVD release dates pushed back by a month or two to grab December sales. If the April/May film happened to be a global release, then France’s new law would prevent distributors from adjusting the timing of its retail sales. This affects the marketing game, which in turn affects those in the creative industries that make these products happen.
This is a frightening side effect that is generally overlooked when one inspects France’s new HADOPI law. Sure, some might suggest that the law actually benefits consumers by putting movies on the shelves sooner, but forced releases have the potential to hurt the content creators which, in turn, could cost filmmakers money. With such costs likely to be passed on to the consumer, we may all find ourselves up a Pandorean creek without a paddle.
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