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Paris Censored Anti-Copyright Street Art

Finnish street artist Sampsa's work took a stand against France's copyright law.
Image: Anni Maarit/Wikimedia Commons

Update 18 Feb, 2014: The text from the "Blood Sucking Hadopi" mural has now been re-painted and new posters by Sampsa have appeared across Paris to raise awareness of the new €60 fine system under the Hadopi law. There is now an image of this included below.

In a rather ironic episode, a street artist whose murals protested French anti-piracy laws aimed at protecting artists’ creations has seen his work effectively censored.

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French magazine Numerama spotted the situation after a Twitter user observed that works by Finnish street artist Sampsa had been “cleaned up” as part of a mission to remove political graffiti tags in an area of Paris, and the story was also reported by English-language site Torrent Freak. One of Sampsa’s murals showed a young boy listening to music and running from a giant mosquito, with the message “The Blood Sucking HADOPI.”

Hadopi is the French government agency in charge of a copyright law of the same name. In their clean-up effort, Parisian city workers painted over the anti-Hadopi statement but left the images, which don’t really make any sense out of context. It’s unclear whether those removing the statement didn’t realise it was part of the original artwork, or whether they were aware of the fact and nevertheless thought it should be removed.

Un peu trop… Le message sur Hadopi a aussi été nettoyé! pic.twitter.com/3IktLdDAw4

— v23id (@v23id) February 12, 2014

A Twitter user pointed out that the Hadopi message had been "cleaned."

Either way, it must say something that the city is fine to host the rest of the street art—only the words were painted over—so long as it’s not making a political point.

While Hadopi wasn’t responsible for the “clean-up” operation, Torrent Freak points out that “the irony of the city’s actions is that it has censored an artist who has spoken out against a law that is supposed to protect artists.” They spoke to Sampsa, who said that one good thing about the damage done to his work was that it raised public awareness, and “shows at least someone is paying attention to certain lines that shouldn’t be crossed.”

By 18 February, the text had been replaced (see update above) and new posters put up across the city. Image: Anni Maarit

He’s an outspoken critic of the Hadopi law, which has a very chequered history. It was adopted in 2009 but was immediately tainted by allegations of falsified Wikipedia pages and fraudulent signatures from artists who supposedly supported the bill. It then had to be revised because it was considered unconstitutional. The main idea behind the law was a “three strike” procedure that suspended the internet connection of repeat copyright offenders, although only one person ever saw that happen. It’s now apparently set to be replaced with an immediate €60 fine instead.

In another self-defeating incident in 2010, the Hadopi agency unveiled its logo only to find it was itself infringing copyright by accidentally using an unlicensed font. Which begs the question: If those behind copyright laws find them hard to follow, what’s everyone else supposed to do?