In its crackdown on online piracy, the French government is targeting sixty French Internet users who have ignored letters warning them to stop infringing copyright.

According to the BBC, the sixty identified people are the first to reach the end of the controversial process France operates about online piracy. A government advisor will visit the sixty people to investiagte the matter.

The report said that the government has sent one warning to about 650,000 people, and two to 44,000.

The French agency that monitors the scheme Hadopi (Haute Autorite pour la Diffusion des Oeuvres et la Protection des Droits sur Internet) was set up in January 2010. It started sending out letters to suspected infringers in October last year.

Hadopi chief Marie-Françoise Marais told French broadcaster TF1 that research suggested the letters it was sending out were acting as a deterrent. However, she added, the results had to be taken with "caution."