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The newly elected socialist government of France has issued the strongest indication yet that it will serious curb the scope of online anti-piracy operations put in to effect by the previous Sarkozy led government.

French Culture Minister Aurelie Filipetti says that the "Three-Strikes" regime, nicknamed Hadopi after the agency responsible for managing it, is just far too expensive to justify the limited results it has produced so far.

"In financial terms, 12 million euros a year and 60 officers, it’s an expensive way to send a million e-mails," the Minister told Nouvel Observateur, as translated by TorrentFreak. "As part of budgetary efforts, I will ask that funding of Hadopi is greatly reduced."

Since 2010, when Hadopi was introduced, only 340 individuals have been issued with their third strike, despite the millions of euros that have already been spent. These individuals could possibly face Internet disconnection, but Filippetti says this would represent a "a disproportionate sanction against the end goal".

More importantly, Filippetti accuses Hadopi of not taking advantage of the reduction in piracy rates by introducing new legal alternatives. Recent reports show that while piracy traffic may have been reduced by as much as 50%, revenue continues to fall for the creative industries.