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French Assembly Rejects Three Strikes Bill

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the they-don't-even-play-baseball-there dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The French Assembly has rejected the Three Strikes bill (in French!) which would allow ISPs to cut off users found to have been downloading protected content after two warnings. Summary: the Sarkozy administration can go back with a new draft for approval by both chambers or try to get upper house approval of a softer version without the cutoff passed by the lower house."

2 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Here's what happened by Nicolas+MONNET · · Score: 5, Informative

    The opposition took advantage of the very low attendance by the majority party: a dozen opposition MPs showed up at the last minute (apparently coordinated by my deputy, Mr Bloche), preventing the majority from gathering its troops. The vote failed 15 to 21 (there are 577 members in the lower chamber).
    The law is not rejected for good, because the government can (and probably will) push for a second reading in both chambers, and it has a large enough majority to get it through. But this event is going to push the issue into the spotlight, and may also allow the European Parliament to once again vote its opposition to the principle (amendment 46 to the Telecom Package), while the opposition gains team.
    Indeed, just a few days ago, a few prominent actors and directors such as Catherine Deneuve or Victoria Abril signed an open letter opposing the law, thereby disproving the main talking point of the proponents: not all artists are united behind Sarkozy-Universal.

  2. Don't be too happy... by Lcf34 · · Score: 5, Informative

    (disclaimer: written by a native "is baseball a kind of dutch cheese?" country). The Assembly is now entering some holidays so press will enjoy the news for the next days, but be sure the law will pass in less than two months (as Mr. Sarkozy has personally expressed a deep interest into it). Even if a very unlikely situation would happen & the text is then supported by a minority and would never been voted as it is, the government has a magic kind of "execute order 66" to bypass assembly and will not be afraid to use it (they already done it). This is the kind of democracy we get in France since Mr. S has arrived where he wanted to!