James Delahunty
29 Apr 2009 20:24
After being rejected by the French National Assembly earlier this month, the controversial "three strikes" Internet piracy bill backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy has returned to Parliament for debate. The legislation proposes cutting Internet service for users caught downloading movies and other content illegally three times.
A state agency would be formed to warn the user the first two times and then make the moves to get the connection suspended. It was expected to pass earlier this month, but a low turnout and two members of Sarkozy's party joining the opposition turned the tide. IFPI chairman John Kennedy said the vote was "disappointing".
"President Sarkozy has been a true champion of intellectual property rights and the proposed law is an effective and proportionate way of tackling online copyright infringement and migrating users to the wide variety of legal music services in France," Kennedy said.
The two dissenting votes were in objection to a requirement that would have forced users suspended from Internet access to keep paying their bill. An amended version is before the Assembly and Senate for debate, where opponents and supporters can add further changes.