French lawmakers reject Internet piracy bill
By SCOTT SAYARE – 8 hours ago

PARIS (AP) — French legislators on Thursday rejected legislation to permit cutting off the Internet connections of people who illegally download music and films. But a stubborn government plans to resurrect the bill for another vote this month.

Backers of the bill — record labels, film companies and law-and-order parliamentarians — couldn't rally the needed support during in a near empty lower chamber ahead of the Easter holiday. Lawmakers voted 21 to 15 against it.

The measure would have created a government agency to track and punish those who pirate music and film on the Internet. Analysts said the law would have helped boost ever-shrinking profits in the entertainment industry, which has struggled with the advent of online file-sharing that lets people swap music files without paying.

The government, intent on gaining the upper hand in piracy, managed to slip the measure into an April 28 special session devoted to initiatives by President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative UMP party.

The president's office reaffirmed Sarkozy's wish to get the law passed "as quickly as possible."

He "does not plan to renounce this whatever the maneuvers" to try to stop the bill's passage, a statement said.

Music labels, film distributors and artists — who have seen CD and DVD sales in France plummet 60 percent in the past six years — almost universally supported the measure, hailing it as a decisive step toward eliminating online piracy and an example to other governments. Artists' groups in France have said the future of the country's music and film industries depends on cracking down on illegal downloads, and the legislation received industry support from around the world.

"It is disappointing that the law was not confirmed today," said London-based John Kennedy, Chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the recording industry worldwide and supported the bill.

Legislators and activists who opposed the legislation said it would represent a Big Brother intrusion on civil liberties — they called it "liberticide" — while the European Parliament last month adopted a nonbinding resolution that defines Internet access as an untouchable "fundamental freedom."

Opponents also pointed out that users downloading from public WiFi hotspots or using masked IP addresses might be impossible to trace. Others called its proposed monitoring structures unrealistic.

"It is a bad response to a false problem," said Jeremie Zimmerman, coordinator of the Quadrature du Net, a Paris-based Internet activist group that opposed the bill, calling it "completely impossible to apply."

He said the bill's rejection is proof of a widespread sense that it was a draconian approach.

Under the legislation, users would receive e-mail warnings for their first two identified offenses, a certified letter for the next, and would have their Web connection severed, for as long as one year, for any subsequent illegal downloads.

French Culture Minister Christine Albanel had said the bill did not aim to "completely eradicate" illegal downloads but rather to "contribute to a raising of consciousness" among offenders.

"There needs to be an experiment," said Pierre-Yves Gautier, an Internet law expert at the University of Paris, noting the plummeting profits of the entertainment industry. "Frankly, it's worth it."

Associated Press writer Emmanuel Georges-Picot

Hell yeah keep music FREE

Well, like the article says, the bill will be voted again. It will be a slightly different version but anyway it seems very unlikely that they let it slip a second time. And it shows you how these people are concerned about democracy when there are only 36 of them to vote, out of 577, especially for a bill like that.

They were probably all sitting in a cafe, chain smoking, looking bored. So, too busy to bother with work or voting.

It will pass eventually. Lame.

Just like the EU Constitution. They will tweak it and rename it till it gets passed. Fuck the citizens.

Also, they'll actually show up to vote this time, and since they were elected they represent the citizens. Still lame.

Maybe music would be worth paying for if it didn't suck so much most of the time. 99% of the music that still sells fucking sucks anyway.

Jammer91: master of the overstatement.

yay! Continue to allow rampant theft with little to no chance of consequence!!!

Did you pay for all your favorite music that you own?

Apparently, the reject of this bill made Sarkozy furious (as usual when anything does not go his way) and required it to be submitted again to the Assembly as soon as possible.

In order to fit in the schedule, they had thought of delaying a law... against incest.

http://www.rue89.com/2009/04/13/lump-ec ... ter-hadopi

Reason #4325 our President is a moron: act for the interest of major disc companies before the safety of kids.

At least, this whole mess was the occasion for one deputy to talk about Gojira and Mastodon at the Assembly !

http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/cr ... p#INTER_24

that's Halliday he's taking the mikey out of or Bruel? (not lived in France for 14 years)

yeah it's Sarkozy's dear friend Johnny Hallyday

Backers of the bill — record labels, film companies and law-and-order parliamentarians

Interesting to see musicians, actors and bread and butter workers not on that list, although I'm not surprised.

LOL @ aproving law against incest.

Without entering a pro or anti incest debate, incest is 2 relatives, there doesn't have to be any children involved. Feel free to call me the comic book guy...

yeah, but the law in question is actually specifically about minors: http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/13/do ... mineur.asp

I stand corrected

And the final blow to this shitty law was given yesterday by the "Conseil Constitutionnel" which is a kind of Supreme Court in France.