Decision of April 26, 2023 registering the "1001ebooks" service on the list mentioned in I of article L. 331-25 of the French intellectual property code

The French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication,

Having regard to the French intellectual property code, in particular articles L.331-12, L.331-25 and R.331-18;

Having regard to the law of 30 September 1986, in particular article 42-7 ;

Having regard to law n°2004-575 of June 21, 2004 for confidence in the digital economy, in particular article 6, III, I and article 19;

Having regard to the e-mail of December 5, 2022 by which the rapporteur mentioned in article 42-7 of the law of September 30, 1986 notified the "1001ebooks" service of the letter of November 29, 2022 informing it of the initiation, on September 14, 2022, of the proceedings prior to its inclusion on the list mentioned in I of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code, forwarded to it the statement of offence drawn up on September 30, 2022 by the sworn and authorized agents of Arcom, and invited it to submit its observations within one month;

Having regard to the report drawn up by the rapporteur on February 6, 2023, concluding that the elements gathered justify the inclusion of the "1001ebooks" service on the list mentioned in I of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code, which was sent to the Chairman of the Authority by letter dated February 7, 2023;

In view of the letter dated March 27, 2023 by which the Chairman of the Authority summoned the "1001ebooks" service to a public meeting on April 19, 2023 at 11:30 a.m. at the Authority's headquarters in order to give it the opportunity to make its observations and produce any supporting evidence;

At the meeting on April 19, 2023, the Authority heard the rapporteur, and the "1001ebooks" service did not appear or was not represented.

Considering the following:

On the legal manager

1. On the one hand, under the provisions of article L.331-25 I of the French intellectual property code, "as part of the mission mentioned in 1° of article L.331-12, the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication may publish a list of the names and actions of those online public communication services that have been the subject of a deliberation in which it was found that these services seriously and repeatedly infringed copyright or neighboring rights".

2. On the other hand, under the provisions of article L.331-25 II of the French intellectual property code: "The investigation proceedings prior to inclusion on the list mentioned in I of this article are carried out by the rapporteur mentioned in article 42-7 of law no. 86-1067 of September 30, 1986 on freedom of communication, or by one of his deputies.

The authorized and sworn agents mentioned in III of article L. 331-14 of the present code are qualified to proceed, at the rapporteur's request, with the investigation and establishment of an infringement of royalties or neighbour rights.

These agents, who have the investigative powers granted to the authority by article 19 of the aforementioned law no. 86-1067 of September 30, 1986, may take into account any useful element and request from copyright or neighbor rights holders any information relating to:

1° The operating authorizations that the said holders have granted to online public communication services;

2° Notifications they have sent to online public communication services, or other information making it possible to ascertain the unlawful use of protected works or objects on these services;

3° Findings made by the authorized and sworn agents mentioned in article L. 331-2 of the present code. The agents' findings are recorded in statements of offence, which are communicated to the rapporteur. If the rapporteur considers that the evidence gathered justifies inclusion on the list referred to in I of the present article, he or she forwards the file to the chairman of the authority."

On the serious and repeated breaches of royalties committed by the "1001ebooks" service

3. According to the official report of offence drawn up on September 30, 2022, the "1001ebooks" service offers free downloading of books in ebook format, with explanations of the various ways of downloading. In this manager, this service hosts and offers a large number of works free of charge (a volume estimated by Arcom's services at over 8,000 works), including very recent publications (such as the book "Dans le temple de mon esprit" by Alice Walker) and paying publications on legal downloading sites.

4. According to the same statement of offence, the "1001ebooks" service, under its various extensions (notably dl.1001ebooks.com, 1001ebooks.club), has been reported to Arcom and has been the subject of numerous requests for URL deletion from search results by the rights holders of the works listed therein, attesting to the fact that it offers a large amount of protected content without the authorization of the rights holders.

On a given search engine, for the domain name 1001ebooks.com, 60,340 URLs out of 5,132 individual requests were the subject of a request for removal from search results, with almost 78% of the URLs reported having been delisted.

5. What's more, it is clear from the same statement of offence that the "1001ebooks" service does not abide by the identification requirements laid down in article 6, section III, paragraph 1 of law no. 2004-575 of June 21, 2004 on confidence in the digital economy, and in article 19 of the same law, which require public mention of the name and address of the service's legal representative.

6. It is clear from all the aforementioned elements that the "1001ebooks" service has committed serious and repeated breaches of copyright, justifying its inclusion on the list mentioned in I of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code, a list published on the Authority's website; the serious and repeated nature of these breaches justifies this inclusion for a period of twelve months.

After deliberation,

Decides :

Art. 1. - The "1001ebooks" service is to be registered for a period of twelve months on the list mentioned in I of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code, which will be published on the Authority's website.

Art. 2 - The present decision will be notified to the "1001ebooks" service electronically and published on the Authority's website, in accordance with IV of article L.331-25 of the French intellectual property code.

Deliberated on April 26, 2023 by Mr. Denis Rapone, presiding member, Mr. Antoine Boilley, Ms. Bénédicte Lesage, Mr. Hervé Godechot, Mr. Benoit Loutrel, Ms. Juliette Théry, Ms. Anne Grand d'Esnon and Ms. Laurence Pécaut-Rivolier, members.

Signed in Paris,

April 26, 2023

For the French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication

Councillor,

D. RAPONE